May 2012 C&CI • Women in Coffee • 47 However, although the co-op quickly
made progress and improved the quality of the coffee it grows, it continued to struggle with one of the main problems facing cof- fee farmers around the world – access to pre-harvest credit.
Access to credit Being a member of the co-op means Uwera Gema
can pay school fees and for medical services for her children
"When we started the association in
1999 we had two main objectives; to recover the production of high quality cof- fee after the conflict, and to work on the reconciliation of our community," said Rurangwa Juvenal, who is President of the co-op.
Then, in 2005 the co-op secured a US$130,000 pre-harvest financing loan from the Massachusetts-based non-gov- ernmental organisation Root Capital. By 2011 that line of credit had grown to US$375,000, in line with the higher output and higher prices. Obtaining access to financing also enabled the co-op to con- sider acquiring processing machinery. "Without the loan, we simply could not compete in the local market. Without it, farmers would sell their coffee to any buyer, if they had money, even at very inferior prices," Shema Jean de Dieu, an account- ant at the Maraba co-op explained. Now, however, for Veneranda, the possi-
bility of her children getting an education is no longer a distant dream. "The co-op has helped me improve the lives of my chil- dren, and now I even have a cow.
Without the loan, we simply could not compete in the local market.
Without it, farmers would sell their coffee to any buyer, if they had money, even at very inferior prices
Able to pay for education
"I hope that my children will be able to get a good education because I have my own income from the co-op and I don’t have any problems paying school fees." For Esperance Nyirahabimana, another
woman coffee farmer, joining made the dif- ference between sustainable income or a life of constant uncertainty. When Esperance joined the co-op she
was unmarried. She is married now, but has retained membership of the co-op. "My life today is very different from women who are not in the co-op," she told C&CI, "because unlike them, I don’t have to rely on my hus- band for getting money." C&CI
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