Reflections from Care Training 2020-21
Last week, we concluded the 12-week long training with our 200+ stellar participants from coffee farming communities!
They were smallholder women with big dreams, and to date, we are chewing on all the deep and lived insights they shared with us. We also have been in awe of the zeal for learning and growth that they’ve demonstrated during the training with us!
More often than not, we aren’t providing our participants with brand new knowledge. It is knowledge that has existed for years, perhaps mostly in English, or amongst academics and specialists. This knowledge gets shared with the industry - including producers- in big seminars and gatherings, that are often inaccessible to smallholder women. Cultural stigma, mobility restrictions, time poverty, educational background… just to name a few of the barriers.
Since 2016, our sole mission has been to make this information and the opportunities that come from this information (also read: market access) accessible to everyone, especially smallholder women and youth.
We believe that with the tools and information, smallholder women coffee producers can build their own sustainable and equitable paths for them - however they define sustainable, and equitable industry for them. Note: systemic and structural changes are required for the access to tools and information for everyone.
2020 was the first year we’ve tried virtual training with smallholder women coffee producers, and it was also the first year that we worked with more than 200+ people all at once.
Today, we are evaluating the lessons we learned from working with 200+ producers in Costa Rica.
Our small but mighty team is knee-deep in work as we collect feedback, evaluate what can be improved and implemented right away to reflect the change on our curriculum and methodology as we speak.
Our dream is to become irrelevant as quickly as possible. Because we simply want to live in the world where everyone, including folx from marginalized communities have access to information and tools. The world where everyone can afford to lead a thriving and fulfilling life. Don’t you?
