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Unitarian Grant Promotes Justice |
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Written by Amy Wisehart, Interfaith Program Manager
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 In late 2006, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Equal Exchange's partner in the UUSC Coffee Project, awarded a grant of $29,245 to Porvenir Financiero, a financial training and literacy project in Latin America.
UUSC's economic justice program supports workers in earning wages and negotiating fair prices that allow them to live in dignity. Porvenir Financiero supports that effort among farming co-operatives that produce coffee for Equal Exchange. UUSC's grant will help women, indigenous and young-adult farmers participate more fully in the project.
Porvenir Financiero's overall goal is to strengthen financial management and business planning skills of rural producer organizations to enhance the long-term success and sustainability of their community-based enterprises.
Under a Small Farmer Fund program, UUSC receives a percentage of proceeds from coffee sales to UU congregations. UUSC then grants that money to support human rights and economic justice initiatives in coffee-growing regions.
In 2005 alone, for example, the Small Farmer Fund totaled more than $17,000 from the sale of Fair Trade coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, and sugar that Unitarian Universalist congregations and UU families purchased from Equal Exchange. Equal Exchange has similar partnerships with seven other denominations.
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