Nicaragua

Posted September 11, 2006 by Sarah McLaughlin

Coffee Sales Spur Better Health

Country: Nicaragua

Topics: Children, Health, Women's Empowerment

Yali, Nicaragua — The going rate to see a doctor or buy a month's supply of prescription medicine in this poor Central American nation is about £15 That's beyond the means of most families here in Yali, a small community nestled among verdant fields of coffee plants in northern Nicaragua. And it's why so many have lined up outside the local school today.

Inside, Mercy Corps' local partner, Asociacion Aldea Global Jinotega, had set up a mobile health clinic staffed by two doctors, a nurse, two pharmacists and several volunteers. Over the next eight hours, 250 community members went through. They consulted with a doctor, got vaccination shots, and received various medicines and vitamins. The total cost: £1 Those unable to afford payment were still accepted.

Since September 2004, Aldea Global has run 11 mobile health clinics benefiting more than 1,120 Jinotega residents.

You can help support these health clinics by purchasing Café Aldea coffee. Specialty roaster Coffee Bean International (CBI) donates $2 from the sale of every pound of Café Aldea to Asociacion Aldea Global Jinotega to use for social programmes. Mercy Corps collaborates with Aldea Global to sell Jinotega's small farmers gourmet coffee, and to improve the quality of life of their families. Each 200 pounds of coffee contributes £240, enough to run a one-day mobile health clinic.

Café Aldea is available from online retailers, including The Coffee Planet, which is offering 10 percent off bags of Café Aldea during the month of May.

The coffee itself is an award-winning blend that's recently achieved the coveted Fair Trade certification from the Fair Trade Labeling Organisation, which means that more proceeds reach the hard-working families of Jinotega.

Posted September 1, 2004 by Roger Burks

Lush Mountains and Lofty Goals

Country: Nicaragua

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development

Julio Obeguedo is determined to reach the top of the coffee world. He's also resolved to lift other local farmers to that lofty goal.

As president of a coffee cooperative in the small town of Monterey, Nicaragua, Obeguedo is certain that the area's coffee is among the best to be found anywhere. Mercy Corps and local partner Asociación Aldea Global Jinotega, a small farmers' association, are helping him and other local farmers prove that to coffee drinkers around the world.

Monterey is situated on pristine, forested mountains about 30 kilometers from Jinotega. Its population lives in modest houses spread out over rolling hills, where banana and other fruit trees abound. The town is unspoiled and peaceful, a haven of serenity.

It wasn't always that way.

Twenty years ago, during the turbulent Nicaraguan civil war, residents of other towns in the area fled to Monterey to escape violence. Back then, the area had no residents and was literally all jungle. Settlers made a home here and have managed to maintain Monterey's lush forests while planting coffee and other crops.

However, despite the extreme care farmers exercise when planting and harvesting their crops. they still can't find Nicaraguan-grown coffee in local stores.

Strangely, most coffee sold in Nicaraguan stores comes from outside of the country, where's its mass-produced by huge companies. That mass-produced, lower-quality coffee is imported to Nicaragua, where it's sold in stores at high prices.

Julio Obeguedo wants to change that. His vision is to have the best quality of Nicaraguan coffee available for both export and local consumption.

The 51 members of APPCO, Monterey's coffee cooperative, are all working toward that goal. They're determined to grow and sell only high-altitude, shade-grown coffee using environmentally-safe organic methods.

The cooperative has over 760 acres planted with this high-quality coffee. Currently, 35 of the cooperative's 51 members have had their fields certified as organic (herbicide and pesticide-free), and the remaining members hope to be certified within a year. The "organic coffee" certification, administered by a variety of fair-trade organisations, is essential for getting the best prices on the worldwide market.

Aldea Global is helping Monterey's coffee farmers every step of the way, from planting to exportation. Farmers are noticing the extra attention they're receiving.

"Other exporters are there when you sign the contract, then there to collect the finished coffee berries, but never there in between," said Obeguedo. "Aldea Global helps us with technical training, finance, economic negotiations - everything."

Unlike other organisations, Aldea Global pays coffee farmers throughout the process: when the crop is planted, throughout the growing season and at harvest. That way, farmers are able to provide for their families' needs all year long.

This unconventional arrangement has enabled Monterey's farming families to weather the coffee crisis as few others have been able to.

Building on their own good fortune, Monterey's farmers are "giving back" to the area. Using the training and support they've received from Aldea Global, the cooperative's members are beginning to help other coffee farmers produce high-quality coffee crops.

"We want to show the world that Jinotega is a coffee capital," said Obeguedo.

As new generations come of age in Monterey, a tranquil town amid the trees, they will carry on in much the same way as those who moved here just two decades ago. Julio Obeguedo wants to pass one very important tradition on to them: pride in the coffee they grow.

For more information on Aldea Global, please visit the association's web site at www.PAGJINO.org.

Posted September 1, 2004 by Roger Burks

Re-Inventing Tradition

Country: Nicaragua

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development, Environment

Magdeleno Benavides' path is a difficult one.

In order to get to his coffee fields, he must walk a ways up a gravel road and turn onto a tiny, muddy narrow path. From the road, the path sinks steeply and immediately to a small stream with a tiny waterfall. After fording the stream, the path goes up - and up - and up some more.

After fifteen minutes of hiking, he arrives at the amazingly perilous slope where he's planted coffee under a grove of indigenous trees.

It's incredible to consider that Benavides, a man who's harvested coffee for over half a century, regularly carries nearly a hundred pounds of coffee seedlings along this treacherous path, only to have to navigate the steep slope to plant and maintain them.

It's obvious that Magdeleno Benavides is committed to coffee. Even though the coffee crisis has complicated his life in recent years, he could never give it up. After all, his family has grown coffee on this land for over 150 years.

"Coffee growing is a culture going back hundreds of years, a way of life," said Benavides. "It's hard to switch to other crops."

This sense of tradition has encouraged Mercy Corps and local partner Asociación Aldea Global Jinotega, a small farmers' association, to find ways to help traditional coffee farmers increase and sustain their income. Working together with farming families throughout the area around Jinotega, Nicaragua, the organisations are promoting the growth of organic, fair-trade specialty coffees.

These coffees, typically grown at higher altitudes under good shade, still fetch a premium price on the global market despite the worldwide coffee crisis.

Magdeleno Benavides has the skills, spirit and land resources to succeed in producing premium-quality coffees. He owns nearly six acres of coffee plantations on the outskirts of the lush Datanli-Diablo Cloud Forest. This land is perched at a lofty 1,275 meters (4,200 feet), easily qualifying it as "high altitude" coffee.

Coffees grown at higher altitudes (typically above 1,200 meters) usually net a farmer between eight and twelve dollars more per 100-pound bag than lower-altitude coffees. This added income is crucial to farmers who are trying to weather the current coffee crisis.

Benavides is also taking a more active stake in improving his coffee crop - and the environment - by practicing agroforestry techniques such as live fencing, contour lines and soil conservation. Aldea Global provides training to farmers who want to implement conservation measures on their farms and also pays them an extra premium on each bag of coffee during the harvest.

"Aldea Global has provided tools, financing and technical advice to support us," Benavides said.

The coffee crisis has challenged Magdeleno Benavides, but he's climbed steeper mountains before. As he trudges up the hill each day to tirelessly maintain his coffee crop, Mercy Corps and Aldea Global are giving him a boost.

"Coffee is the best crop to make a living from a few [acres] of land," Benavides said.

High in the hills above Jinotega, Magdeleno Benavides is growing some of the best coffee in the world.

For more information on Aldea Global, please visit the association's web site at www.PAGJINO.org.

Posted September 1, 2004 by Roger Burks

An Integrated Farm Brings New Independence in Nicaragua

Country: Nicaragua

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development, Hunger

The coffee crisis has meant harder times for Birgina Morales and her family. Her husband has grown coffee all his life, and his father before him. Most of their meagre livelihood came from the coffee harvest each year.

The devastating worldwide coffee crisis has resulted in lower household income and smaller, less nutritious meals for many families around the Nicaraguan city of Jinotega - including Birgina, her husband and their children.

Mercy Corps and local partner Asociación Aldea Global Jinotega, a small farmers' association, are ensuring that families like Birgina's are able to weather the ill effects of the coffee crisis. The two organisations are working together with farmers around Jinotega to diversify food crops and lessen dependence on coffee. Families are encouraged to plant a variety of garden vegetables and fruit trees in addition to their traditional coffee crops.

After working with Aldea Global for over four years, Birgina's farm is now the pride of the area. She's a model farmer; she does organic gardening, maintains orchards of bananas, guava and citrus, keeps chickens for eggs and meat and has recently started raising fish for family consumption.

Her farm is truly integrated and sustainable. Everything works interchangeably: the organic garden is even watered by run-off from the fishpond during the dry season!

Aldea Global is also helping Birgina and her husband produce higher-quality coffee. The organisation has trained them to use improved farming methods like composting and contour lines to protect the soil quality in their coffee plantations. They're also trying a wider variety of shade trees to ensure the best shade-grown coffee possible.

Aldea Global's special relationship with Nicaraguan coffee processors and exporters helps local farmers get a fair price for their coffee crop.

"Aldea Global is different from other organisations," Birgina said. "We've been selling coffee through them for two years in a row and have accomplished our quota both years, which we're very proud of. We've made more money selling through Aldea Global."

Birgina's new-found success has encouraged her to help other farmers around the Jiguina River Valley. She's now an active member of the Aldea Global board and takes every opportunity to tell other farmers about the good work the organisation is doing.

Technical and financial support from Mercy Corps and partner Aldea Global are helping families like Birgina's find food security and much-needed income in the midst of the coffee crisis.

"These projects have helped us to pull out of poverty. We've benefited greatly from Aldea Global's training programmes," Morales said. "My family and I have seen the difference."

For more information on Aldea Global, please visit the association's web site at www.PAGJINO.org.

Posted September 1, 2004 by Roger Burks

Hatching a New Plan

Country: Nicaragua

Topics: Agriculture, Hunger, Women's Empowerment

Adelina Aguileres doesn't put all her eggs in one basket. Instead, she shares the load with several other women in her area.

Adelina belongs to a local farming cooperative of 40 women. The cooperative specializes in poultry farming throughout the Jiguina River Valley near Jinotega, Nicaragua.

Mercy Corps and local partner Asociación Aldea Global Jinotega, a small farmers' association, started working with these local women as the coffee crisis reached its peak. The organisations offer technical and financial assistance to this cooperative and others like it, helping the women expand their farms and ensure better food security for their families.

The coffee crisis brought widespread unemployment, poverty and hunger to all of Nicaragua. Farms around Jinotega were especially affected: 33% of the area's children suffer malnutrition and child mortality claims ten out of every thousand children.

Mercy Corps and Aldea Global's food security programmes are empowering over 800 local mothers to produce and sell eggs, vegetables and fruits using organic farming practices. This creates higher-quality products that bring more income in local markets.

These programmes are helping families like Adelina's begin to bounce back from the financial shock and strain the coffee crisis caused. Farming families are developing new skills and planting new crops to help guarantee food and income in the future.

Adelina's cooperative decided to pursue poultry farming in order to provide important meat and eggs to local communities, and also to sell chicks to farmers wanting to start their own poultry projects. In the past, it was difficult for local families to purchase chicks, which cost up to £1 per chick in nearby markets.

The goal of the cooperative is to increase the number of local poultry producers in order to provide cheaper, better quality chickens to the Jinotega area.

Adelina's cooperative distributes chicks to other farms in the area. When someone joins the cooperative, they receive a "starter kit" of a few chicks or eggs and an incubator. Women in the cooperative pay a small membership fee each year, which entitles them to technical advice from other members and a supply "exchange" that ensures that every farm maintains healthy chickens.

Adelina started working with the cooperative in February 2004, and has already seen a difference in her family's livelihood.

"Mercy Corps has had a big impact on our lives, which helps with our family budget," she said.

With help from Mercy Corps and Aldea Global, Adelina is hatching a new plan to provide for her family's needs.

For more information on Aldea Global, please visit the association's web site at www.PAGJINO.org.