Eight years ago, Lao was one of the poorest farmers in his remote village in San Miguel. To get his crop to market, he had to go through the local "coyote" loan shark who gave him next to nothing for his crop.
Through Growers First, we were able to help Lao yield a higher quality crop and get a better price. Through our micro-credit loans, Lao expanded his farm. He is now the leader of his co-op and an inspiration to farmers in the community.
Last year, Lao sold his crop for $10,693, a 500% increase in his income since 2006. Which keeps his wife, Matia, happy and making plenty of her special rattlesnake tamales. They go perfect with coffee.
Nelson is proud of his coffee farm. He is a father of 5 and one of the farmers that we have partnered with in the village of Las Lagunas. He is quiet and reserved leader that works hard to keep his coffee trees in the best condition possible.
Through the education and support we have provided he has made vast improvements in the output and quality of his coffee farm. By providing micro-credit loans and buying directly from his co-op we have been able to help Nelson maximize the profit he receives from his crop. When you choose his coffee you change the life of his family.
If you have the privilege of spending a day with Zuri, your cheeks will ache from laughing and smiling. He is an enthusiastic leader in both the community of San Jeronimo and his co-op.
Growers First has had the privilege of supporting his vision of a better life for his family and community. We have trained him and he has trained others to improve the quality of their coffee crops. We have financed his efforts through micro-credit loans. And then we have given his co-op the best price for their coffee by trading directly with them.
Zuri’s hard work is paying off. Through his servant leadership his community is beginning to thrive. Your choice matters.
When we met Rito 5 years ago, he had just sold his coffee crop for $95. His house had a dirt floor and his family had no access to clean water so his kids were always sick. We could see how his family struggled to survive and how much Rito longed for a better life for them.
So we did what we could to support his vision. We helped him improve the quality of his coffee crop. We financed his efforts through micro-credit loans. And then we gave him the best price for his coffee by trading directly with his village co-op Rito’s hard work is paying off.
This year Rito made $1,500 from his coffee crop. His house has a solid cement floor and a well that provides clean water. His family is healthy. His son Selvin just started 9th grade—one of two kids from their village to have made it that far. Our friend has hope.
I landed in Oaxaca with a desire to serve and experience an unfamiliar culture and within three weeks the desire became reality in an astounding way. My name is Mark Dupray and I had the pleasure of spending a month living in the village of Ixcuintepec, Mixe Oaxaca.
To understand the remoteness of these villages it helps to understand that 20 years ago only a simple trail allowed access to the town and Spanish was not spoken. Only recently have cars become infrequent visitors and firelight been replaced by street lights.
When I landed in town and the announcement was made during the gathering of the Growers First farmer's cooperative, that I would be staying for a month. The word spread fast. During my time I learned that three staples keep the Mixe thriving as they have for the last couple centuries in the tropical mountains of Oaxaca. The first is family, the second is coffee, and the third is corn. The Mixe families are large and intimately involved. Every person in the village could at any give time scan the town and spot at least one cousin, grandmother, uncle or immediate family member, often with an enormous load of wood piled on their back or with a machete dangling at their side. And often those aforementioned persons were going to or coming home from their coffee or corn fields.
Growers First in conjunction with the farmer's cooperative have made growing coffee a worth while venture once again after years of prices being too low to motivate people to invest the hard labor to harvest coffee. While in the village I had the pleasure of hiking often an hour or more, deep into the lush surrounding hills to see the coffee plants growing in the shade of the the massive tropical canopy. During the month I was in town, the local farmer's CO-OP members collected the remaining coffee for the second export lot. In all 30,000 kilos were collected from Ixcuintepec this season and all of it was loaded onto the trucks one, 70 kilo bag at a time!
The Mixe are warm and inviting people who are more than willing to feed you until you absolutely explode. One of the first phrases I learned in Spanish and Mixe is "THANK YOU, I AM FULL." I spent countless evening hours hanging in a hammock with one family or another, discussing the day, the weather, the crops, and plans for the future. My time in the village also included teaching English, finishing construction of an adobe house, clearing fields with a machete and dodging fruit as it fell from the trees. The month in the village had a profound affect on me and it gave me a great feeling to know that Growers First is working with these people and many others like them, to produce a sustainable and healthy crop of coffee and people.
Please enjoy a short video I put together to show you these wonderful farmers and their families!
in Farmers
on
Friday, September 09, 2011
Eight years ago, Lao was one of the poorest farmers in his remote village in San Miguel. To get his crop to market, he had to go through the local "coyote" loan shark who gave him next to nothing for his crop.
