To Ghimbi, West Ethiopia

I had the opportunity to join a group going to Ghimbi, October 28-31, where a contract was signed for an interesting project. 

Organic coffee will be produced by the area around Ghimbi; the local cooperative, the women's cooperative and the Oromo Coffee Union have agreed to do so. Here you see the members of the booard of the local coffee coopertaive, all in their best shoes and trousers, and offical white clothes! 


The coffee is going to be bought by a big Netherlands based supermarket chain and they will sell it as a special brand. 

There were many people watching, as they had never seen so many 'foreign-gees' together. 

The interesting aspect is that the F&S climate fund was part of the deal as they will organise that 40.000 households will get a sustainable cooking stove. The women can earn carbon credits by using those stoves. They are sustainable in 3 ways:  first oif all: women do not need to walk far and carry heavy loads of fire wood, and secondly, the forest will be saved from cutting wood. Thirdly, the stoves are bruning on compressed organic waste, so it's been recycled. 

The director of Max Havelaar/ Fair Trade Netherlands was also present as - in fact - they organise thefair deal ( percentage) for the farmers. 


The guy at the right is a very jolly 'shoe-shine boy' and since he made us all laugh, in beautiful English mind you, he got ten-fold of what a normal shoe shine boy would earn.