admin | October 14, 2010
A trip with Agros and a lot of photos (above – seated on the right is David, our guide for the week)
I’ve worked with Camano Island Coffee Roasters for the last two years, and am a huge advocate of their coffee. Sorting photos with a french press on the coffee table can make for a wonderful day, and I do this consistently with CICR’s coffee.
What I love about Camano Island Coffee Roasters is that they partner with non-profit organization Agros International. Agros works with poor rural farmers in Central America, providing land loans to them along with training on the land in sustainable practices. They are helping farmers to own their own land, provide for themselves and even make profit (breaking out of poverty!). Many of these villages end up growing coffee and Camano Island Coffee Roasters becomes the middle man bringing delicious fairly traded coffees to its customers.
I had the privilege of going on a “vision trip” with Agros and was able get a first hand glimpse of what partnering with them really means and what their version of community development looked like. It was a short trip, and we by no means saw everything, but what we did see confirmed to me why supporting them is such a worthy cause.
(Dan and a fresh grape fruit, just thrown out of the tree to him.)
I was overwhelmingly impressed with both the Seattle based Agros staff who served as our travel guides, and their staff on the ground in Nicaragua. The work they are doing is much more than a job to them. It was very clear to me how much Agros cares about the people they have set out to help. Both the look in their eyes and and depth of detail they have put into their plan for empowering poor rural families is heart touching. I had heard that Agros was, “not just another charity,” and from what I saw this holds true. They are so much more.
The questions I had about Agros and the work done in Nicaragua were not questions that the staff could answer. I knew who they were before going but just wanted to see it first hand. I wanted to hear from those that they were helping what was going on and to see if lives were really being changed. The villagers I encountered were proud of their farms and homes and getting them to share about their lives was natural; those I talked to were eager to do so.
a group stands in front of the coffee processing building at Nueva Esperanza
Nathan (Agros) and Jeff (CICR) get shown corn. We were told this amount would feed a family for 6 months.
I was so impressed to hear from one man in particular as he told me a bit about his life. How he had been working on coffee farms since he was 15 and about his old job was in a nearby small town. As he told me about his life I was curious why he would have left his job. From the poverty I had seen in the surrounding area I could only imagine that many people would have longed to have held any job at all, even with the low wages payed.
The answer this man gave to my question could not have been closer to the the mission statement of Agros if they had said it themselves. As we walked between coffee plants, and through the scattered shade of banana trees he told me how his life had changed. How his old life, while he had held a job, really offered no escape from poverty. That while he was surviving, there was no hope. On his new land his life was different, and there was room to grow. This man knew what was going on and seemed to have gotten from Agros exactly what they had intended, and it was a powerful thing to hear from him.
As Agros works to get farmers owning their own land the farmers are empowered and can take responsibility for their futures and and that of their families.
coffee processing building, on our tour of the San Jose village.
(Kelsey in the community building)
While Camano Island Coffee sells coffee grown by Agros villages and supports them directly in that sense, Agros as an organization is doing much more than just teaching the poor how to grow coffee. They are pushing for holistic sustainable practices and releasing these farmers to endless possibilities. Agros villages become self sustaining, filled with live stock and a number of different crops.
There are Agros villages around Central America in various stages of development. One of the many special moments we had there was when we were able to see new land yet to be lived on, and later a truck load of families heading off to start a new life there. In the back of the truck was every possession they owned… and it hardly made a pile. After seeing the change made in the more developed Agros villages we had visited, I felt real hope watching that truck drive off to the new land where these people would make a home.
they helped cook us lunch
a kitchen in one of the houses
the scenery continues to blow my mind, so beautiful
coffee at a coffee exporter building
we were greeted with beautiful music at San Jose
the community building
cocoa
too cute
coffee mid process
i love the colors here
we got to meet a lot of beautiful people
i think this is one of my favorites
rainy season
cows in the street, we saw this a lot
taking turns removing the cherry from the coffee beans
watching farmers hand pick each bean adds a new appreciation to drinking coffee for me
banana trees
what a cutie, and love the little cat at the lower left
showing off his home to us
this guys was throwing us all grape fruits
musical welcome – I love the faces in this one
i like that he has a big stick
this was our send off as we left, photo taken through the window of our car
a little tromp in the jungle, looking for the monkeys
a few houses
evening light
Melody works with Agros
a truck load of families headed to a new Agros supported village. I’m excited for the change that awaits.
Agros Staff
Frog.
on tour of their beautiful land
horses along the side of the road
coffee being processed
the view from the top of San Jose
proud home owners
on tour
Paul, Kristen, and Erin, monkey hunting
volcano
It was great trip and amazing to see the good work that is going on in an area that needs it so greatly. I think this is the longest post of all time, but I hope you enjoyed it, and I encourage you to check out the links below for more info and ways to get involved.
Get involved : www.agros.org
Get Coffee that supports this : www.camanoislandcoffee.com
Category: DOCUMENTARY |
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