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Dean in Rwanda
In September, CoopCoffees member Dean Cycon traveled to Rwanda where he met with important actors in the world of trade and agriculture. He also was able to attend and co-facilitate a workshop dedicated to training people in the community of our producer partner COOPAC about gender violence.
The coffee producing industry in Rwanda – like almost everything else – has been anything but simple and seamless since its surge after the 1994 genocide. The industry and more importantly, the thousands of farmers engaged in the production, have endured complications and continue to face various obstacles. After receiving thousands of dollars in foreign aid to establish high-tech washing stations all over the country, the systematic abandonment of unwashed coffee and other traditional practices has swept through the country. Moreover, since the nineties, aid has subsided and any developments in coffee production have been bought on credit, leaving many farmers in severe debt. Recently, the question of organic practices has confronted both producers and importers. With pressure from the government to use chemical fertilizers (they go as far as offering awards to farmers who use chemicals to increase production output), attempts to incorporate organics have faced an uphill battle. Currently, there is no in-house certifying body in Rwanda.
But the story doesn't end there. Dean from Dean's Beans has been in contact with various members of Fair Trade coops in Rwanda and has actively encouraged them down the path of international certification. Meeting with a variety of important actors from farmers to the Minister of Agriculture to the President’s top advisor, Dean dedicated much of his trip to promoting the establishment of further and left with apparent success. As history has shown, it’s never easy to work against the conventional and “easier” models offered – and in some cases, enforced – by the market and the governments that revere it. But when has that ever stopped people in the Fair Trade movement? Already, cooperative Misozi is on its way to becoming the first organic-certified coop in Rwanda. COOPAC is also willing and ready to begin the process with help from outside certifiers and experts.
The following is an excerpt from a report written by Dean about his experience in Rwanda, more specifically, at the workshop on Overcoming Gender Violence that he co-facilitated:
For the entire article, click here...
Last year, a wonderful organization called Men's Resources International was considering a gender violence training in Rwanda and we offered to pay for three coffee farmers to participate, paying their transportation, room and board and all fees for the workshops. Our idea was that if the trainings were a success and useful in the eyes of the farmers, then we would fund a full training for farmers from COOPAC, the cooperative we purchase from in the northwest of the country, on the shores of Lake Kivu and near the Congo border. After the training, I received a letter signed by the farmers stating that the work was life canging, and asking me to make it available to more farmers in Rwanda. We were on.
So, over a long weekend in September, Steven and James from MRI facilitated an experiential wokshop for fifteen men and fifteen women from COOPAC, exploring gender-based violence in their lives, examining the attributes of strong men and strong women in respectful relationships (economically, physically and socially). 
At the end of the trainings, we held a big community gathering, full of traditional dancing and singing. Over two hundred community members witnessed the farmer participants stand up and tell what they had learned about gender violence in their lives. They saw men turn to women in a very public place and ask for forgiveness. They saw the women forgive. It was powerful modeling for the community, and many people in the crowd shouted encouragement to the participants, as if some deep pressure was being released. The men and women all vowed to take what they had learned back to their communities around the mountains, and COOPAC promised to create a Gender Committee to continue the work and give it formal approval. We also said that we would take the work to other coops around Rwanda, and that some of the men and women could come and share their experiences with other farm communities, reinforcing my belief that cooperatives can be a powerful vehicle for social development as well as economic.
