International Women’s Day Celebration Rwanda

From March 21-24 Fairtrade certified farms celebrated International Women’s Day together at the Dukunde Kawa Musasa coffee farm in Kigali, Rwanda. Participants came from Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia. On behalf of Sher, Hilina Mekonnen participated.

The group visited several coops such as the Dukunde Kawa Musasa coffee farm close to Kigali. Founded in 2003, this coop expanded from 300 coffee growers to more than 2,000. Eighty percent of Dukunde Kawa’s members are women. They market their coffee as ‘women-grown coffee’. Fairtrade premium goes toward child education and improvements that directly support the community such as a sewing association that produces re-usable sanitary pads for the local market. At Kagera Co-operative Union (KCU) women and youth are trained on soap production and beekeeping.

Enforcing the role and position of women in our farms and communities is an important goal in our strive for a diverse and inclusive workforce. We will continue to offer various programs and training courses to our staff and community members that contribute to this goal.

We want to thank Fairtrade for giving the opportunity to learn from other farms in an international setting.