Looking to Local Markets to Confront Poverty

Coffee Kids Announces 25 Projects to Improve Quality of Life in Latin America (Santa Fe, NM) – More than 25 million families around the world depend on coffee for their income. Coffee Kids, a nonprofit organization, helps these families reduce their reliance on coffee and inject new life into local economies. This year, Coffee Kids will fund 25 projects in five countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Peru. Coffee Kids partners with organizations in coffee-farming communities to support projects that focus on economic diversification and microcredit, health awareness, education and training, and food security. Just as every community is unique, every Coffee Kids project is unique, addressing a specific need identified by community members. This year, many of the projects involve the creation of local businesses such as grocery stores or butcher shops to provide easier access to affordable food and drugs. * In the Tabaconas Valley of Peru, 24 women will receive Coffee Kids funding to create and stock a grocery store. Given the valley's remote location, access to quality foodstuffs is limited and markets for locally-produced goods are few. * For 14 years, a Coffee Kids partner in Veracruz, Mexico, has worked to promote financial literacy and entrepreneurship in rural communities. This year, the organization will focus on food security efforts and the production of locally-grown foods and medicinal plants. * In Nueva Alianza, Guatemala, families have to travel more than two hours to purchase fresh produce at the nearest market. A Coffee Kids-supported organic gardening project will provide a local source for fresh, healthy food. * At a Coffee Kids funded project in Guatemala students in an adult literacy program have opened a bakery that now employs two full time bakers and three re-sellers. This year the group plans to create a nursery/kindergarten project to support working parents and childhood development. Other Coffee Kids partners will institute projects in health awareness and domestic violence prevention, education and scholarships, microcredit loans and savings, and food security.For a complete list, please visit http://www.coffeekids.org/aboutus/programs