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Better vision, brighter future
In North America, we take for granted the relatively easy access we have to services such as vision correction and proper housing. In many areas of the world, however, something as simple as obtaining reading glasses for older people or securing housing for families is next to impossible. The recent donation of 100 pairs of glasses from Cafe Campesino to producer partner coop ACOES as well as the proposal of a housing project with the Fuller Center provide wonderful examples of how Fair Trade strives to build a better world beyond market transactions. We live in such a privileged and blessed society -- why not share the wealth?
As reported in our November newsletter, two delegates from The Organic Farmers Association of Western El Salvador (ACOES) visited the US to attend CoopCoffees’ annual assembly and to spend time with some of our member-roasters and their communities in the South. Oscar, a technical and research assistant for ACOES and Don Rogelio, the president of the coop, sure stayed busy. From speaking with school groups to being interviewed on a local radio station, they spread the good news of Fair Trade in a personal and meaningful way. The communities of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida and Americus, GA were deeply touched by their message.
Upon their departure, Café Campesino presented them with reading glasses that were donated from members of the community. Back in June, a delegation from the roastery visited ACOES in Tacuba, El Salvador. At that time, the majority of the coop’s members – most of whom are in their 50s, 60s and even 70s – lacked reading glasses. Tasks as 
simple as reading contracts, for example, were unnecessarily complicated and even impossible for some, due to a totally preventable cause. Cafe Campesino decided they wanted to help the older coop members and thus began a collection of reading glasses. By the time Don Rogelio and Oscar arrived, they had accumulated approximately 100 pairs of glasses.
Oscar delivered the glasses to members of ACOES in November when he returned from his visit to the States. The coffee farmers and their wives graciously accepted the glasses – this was the first time they experienced any kind of personal connection with a buyer. They couldn’t believe how much Cooperative Coffees actually cared about their well-being. They celebrated with a small party complete with basic vision evaluations, test-readings, and lots of big smiles! To document the event, everyone who received a pair of glasses signed a list and thank-you card that was then sent to the Café Campesino team.
Around the same time that ACOES' members received the glasses, the coop was visited by one of Cafe Campesino's partners in Georgia, the Fuller Center. The Center is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to providing housing in impoverished areas all over the world and is currently looking into helping ACOES in a project. In a visit by the president and vice-president of the 
organization, the two groups exchanged information regarding the current housing situation for ACOES and what the potential project might look like. Most of the members of the coop are elderly making consistent and stable work a difficult feat. Furthermore, being dependent on such labor-intensive work like coffee production means that securing a substantial profit becomes harder as the farmers age and become less capable of enduring each harvests heavy demands. The decreasing income affects the conditions and quality of the members' housing. Don Antonio, ACOES' eldest member showed the visitors some of these effects on his own home. The Fuller Center representatives noted the needs of the community and assured the members they were committed to some kind of project that would help ACOES. The details have yet to be worked out but the meeting certainly laid out the blueprints for a highly beneficial partnership between both groups.
Here's a final word from Tripp Pomeroy, President of Cafe Campesino:
"When our good friends Don Rogelio Surano and Oscar Ortiz Montano from ACOES in El Salvador visited us in October, we delivered a box containing 100 pairs of new reading glasses for them to distribute to members of their coop. We recently received a lovely report and thanks from them, learning that they not only had taken care of the needs of their immediate coffee coop but had also taken the time and initiative to deliver an additional 60 or so pairs to members from their surrounding community. In total, ACOES delivered the opportunity to read to 90 folks in one fell swoop. We acknowledge our friends at ACOES for their service to the community and reaffirm our feeling that it is an honor to be their trading partners and friends.
While we here at Cafe Campesino feel good about our small role in making this happen, the real thanks goes to Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity (VOSH) [http://www.vosh.org/]. VOSH volunteers Larry and Ruth Hauler along with Christine Smith are the ones who took the time to assemble the reading glasses and get them to Cafe Campesino so that we could deliver them (and the necessary acuity/testing charts) to our friends from ACOES. VOSH has been going on eye missions to developing countries for 18 years, setting up clinics and seeing an average of 2500-3000 patients a week The people who go on the missions are optometrists, opticians and lay people, who pay their own way and donate their time and skills to helping people who perhaps have never had a pair of glasses before. As of 2007, VOSH has helped over 200,000 patients in Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. They have also been to Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba and St.Lucia. Well, on behalf of our producer partners at ACOES and their surrounding community, Cafe Campesino thanks VOSH and Ruth, Larry and Christine in particular for helping us deliver the reading glasses. This is an example, albeit small, of the potential of Fair Trade, bringing people and resources together to make change where change is needed!"
