Miriam's Well with Deans Beans

Deans Beans is involved in a revolving loan fund to build wells in coffee villages from which we import coffee. Potable water access is a consistent problem in the south, with huge direct and indirect costs.  The burden usually falls on women, with disproportionate amounts of their time spent walking miles to retrieve clean drinking water, instead of on other household chores. Alternatively, water is accessed from nearby streams or rivers that have been polluted by chemicals, or that are rife with infectious bacteria or parasites.  Building wells provides a multitude of positive benefits.  Improved sanitary conditions, and thus increased health standards of locals is one obvious resuilt.  Better water access can also lower the household burden enough to give women enough time to follow other pursuits, such as education.

Miriam’s Well project is Dean’s Beans response to this issue.   They will be providing no interest loans to villages such that they can build the wells themselves through the purchase of materials and assistance.  The loans will be paid back through coffee sales, and the repaid loan will be made available once again for a different community project.  By using the people-centered development approach (meaning that they work directly with locals), they have cut the cost of the construction of these wells from a projected 40,000$ to 8,000$.  It is their intention to  build one well a year, each time in a different community, the first being in Oromia. 

Here is a descrition of the project in their words:

The Miriam’s Well project is the world’s first revolving loan fund for well building, located in Jimma – the birthplace of coffee.  Each cooperative borrows the money from the project, builds a well in their community and repays the fund a penny per pound at harvest.  When the fund is replenished it is made available to the next coop.  To date three wells have been built under this unique partnership. We are now looking to buy the equipment to build the wells, creating water and jobs! In addition, we are pursuing a reforestation program with Trees for the Future. This is an important part of our carbon neutral strategy

Click here to find out more about this project.