32 ■ GENDER & EQUALITY
C&CI
Established to help
March 2010
empower women in the
IWCA: promoting
international coffee
community, the
International Women’s
possibilities for women
Coffee Alliance (IWCA*)
aims to help women in
coffee achieve meaning-
in the coffee industry
ful and sustainable lives,
and encourage recogni-
conference was developed by the
Costa Rican chapter of the IWCA and As awareness and visibility
tion of and participation the theme was ‘Coffee from Hands to
of the IWCA and its work
by women in all aspects
Hearts.’ More than 100 women and
men representing 12 countries attend-
grows, more and more
of the coffee industry.
ed. Dr Néstor Osorio, Executive Director
women from origin countries
of the International Coffee Organization
was the keynote speaker for the confer-
are contacting the IWCA for
O
ne of the ways it does this is ence, which focused on education and information and guidance
through its grants programme; included workshops on topics ranging
with the hope of forming
another is through regular par- from cupping and brewing to finance. In
ticipation in international coffee events addition, the conference was a great
new local chapters
As Launtia Taylor, President of the opportunity for participants to network
IWCA and Director of Sales & and collaborate on projects. have developed a ‘Chapter
Marketing, Probat Burns Inc in the US, Establishment Manual’ that guides
and Margaret Swallow, of Swallow
New chapters
women through the process of estab-
Associates, who is IWCA Secretary, lishing a non-profit organisation in their
explained one of the key goals of the New IWCA chapters continue to be country. In November 2009, five IWCA
IWCA is to provide support for pro- established around the world, and to members led a workshop in Kampala,
grammes that offer women an opportu- date there are chapters in Costa Rica, Uganda where more than 20 women
nity to create relationships, learn new El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. representing members of the Eastern
skills, and strengthen their communi- As awareness and visibility of the IWCA Africa Fine Coffees Association
ties. and its work grows, more and more (EAFCA) participated. As an outcome of
Some recent examples of how the women from origin countries are con- this workshop, the local women made a
IWCA works with women in origin coun- tacting the IWCA for information and commitment to lead the work to estab-
tries include the Alliance’s first interna- guidance with the hope of forming new lish an IWCA chapter in their countries.
tional educational conference, which local chapters.
was held in Costa Rica in 2008. The The Board of Directors of the IWCA
Grant programme
bears fruit
In February 2009 six organisations in
different origin countries were awarded
a total of US$20,000 in IWCA grants.
The projects ranged from helping
women in Mexico to improve their com-
puter literacy to helping women in
Nicaragua build a laboratory to promote
sustainable approaches to coffee pro-
duction.
"The IWCA grants programme is a
great example of how a relatively small
amount of money can make a signifi-
cant impact in the lives of women, their
families, and communities" said Mrs
Taylor. "Based on the outstanding
The IWCA’s spring 2009 grant to origin was
used to help Desarrollo Autogestionario (AUGE)
results from the 2009 programme, we
in Mexico with computer literacy training
will initiate another round of grants in
2010."
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