Caldas, Colombia
Meet the needs of farmworkers, producers, and local organizations, while identifying and implementing solution to make employment within the coffee industry more socially viable.
Farmworkers are among the most vulnerable and invisible partners in the coffee supply chain, yet – they are directly responsible for ensuring the success of each year’s harvest. Las Manos del Café is the first project of its kind that aims to develop and implement mechanisms targeted specifically at elevating the well-being and socio-economic livelihood of farmworkers. By ensuring the basic needs of farmworkers are being met, we are creating a more dignified and socially viable workforce in the coffee sector.
Beneficiaries:
This project has been successfully implemented across three Cooperatives in Caldas, Colombia, with 9,099 direct beneficiaries, 6,574 of which are farmworkers and 2,525 are family members.
2. Cooperativa de Caficultores del Alto Occidente
3. Cooperativa de Caficultores del Norte Project
Las Manos del Café began as a pilot project (Aguadas Farmworkers) in 2016, guided by our hypothesis that by improving labor working conditions, providing better access to information, and establishing training programs for farmworkers, small-scale farm owners would then be able to attract and retain qualified labor, year after year.
As farm labor shortages is a reality for most coffee farmers worldwide, the pilot aimed to investigate how to alleviate this pressure by encouraging the dwindling labor force to remain in coffee production by providing them growth and development opportunities. A project focuses solely on addressing the needs of farm workers not only provides a viable solution in alleviating labor shortages but also contributes to enhancing coffee quality and quantity – benefiting all actors in the supply chain.
*This group also conducted the characterization, base line survey, monitoring and manual guidelines of the project.
Project partners: SCA – Rainforest – UTZ, FTUSA, Catholic Relief Services, National Federation of Coffee Growers, Aguadas Cooperative, Alto Occidente Cooperative, Norte de Caldas Cooperative, Solidaridad, Fundacion +Rural, Keurig, Starbucks, RGC Coffee.
Flor de mi Tierra was established in 2005 to work on re-building coffee communities displaced and hard hit by guerilla violence. The program focuses on basic needs such as health, sanitation and education & most-recently young entrepeneurs in coffee.
Caldas, Colombia
Launched in 2016, the Aguadas Farmworkers Pilot is a coffee industry coordinated project to find solutions and work on a benchmark to increase the quality of farmworker conditions, management, labor formalization and recruitment.
La Plata, Huila, Colombia
This association of over 400 women coffee farmers came together to solve issues including lack of capital to use on their farms and to create an equitable working relationship with their husbands. Today, they are committed to producing high-quality coffee.
Popayan, Cauca, Colombia
Popayan, Cauca, Colombia
An association of 392 organic coffee farmers who promote and develop technologies that increase the production and yields of excellent organic coffees. The projects helps to attract conventional farms to convert to organic.
Valle del Cauca, Colombia
The focus with Granja La Esperanza is to promote specialty and microlot coffees from Colombia. La Esperanza has created a truly unique environment among their 3 model farms which serves as a leading worldwide example of microlot coffees.