May 16, 2008

ACDI/VOCA's Work Acknowledged in Washington Post

A frontpage article in the May 16 Washington Post on Rwanda's woman-led economic revival refers to coffee cooperatives "...organized with the help of international nonprofit organizations and aid agencies...." ACDI/VOCA is proud to have been a significant part of that effort, particularly in the Maraba district of Butare province that was highlighted in the article. Furthermore, in the context of today's food crisis, ACDI/VOCA's Rwanda programming is instructive in the way it has melded short-term food security with long-term economic development.

ACDI/VOCA’s USAID-funded Title II food security program in Rwanda has operated since February 2000. It was designed to address local food needs, natural resource management, agricultural productivity and agribusiness development. These activities were implemented through the provision of grants to local associations and cooperatives that were funded through ACDI/VOCA's sale of U.S.-donated vitamin A-fortified vegetable oil, which was needed in the local diet.

In 2001, ACDI/VOCA volunteer David T. Walker developed a business plan for 2,000 beneficiaries in the Maraba area based on local agronomic, social and economic realities that targeted gourmet and specialty markets in the U.S. and Europe. He was greatly responsible for orienting USAID's subsequent development efforts around coffee, a crop that had languished for years but which Rwanda has the altitude and soil to produce at a high level.

ACDI/VOCA assisted Maraba and other Rwandan farmers to obtain bank loans necessary to purchase equipment and build the coffee-washing stations that are essential to boosting quality. The country’s first new coffee-washing station in 20 years was constructed in the Maraba district by the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative supported jointly by ACDI/VOCA's project and the PEARL Project, which was run by Michigan State University and Texas A&M University. We also taught farmers how to better cultivate arabica Bourbon trees, which in some cases were determined to be valuable heirloom plantings. Farmers learned to prune, mulch, control pests and diseases, and select the ripest cherries. We also helped them obtain Fair Trade status which guaranteed good prices.

One of the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative members, Mrs. Mukanalnoiye, a genocide widow, reported to CNN journalists in May 2003: “This cooperative has helped us greatly, because after joining it, many things have changed. For example, it was not easy to have this coffee and then we had to take it to the valley to wash it and carry it back to the mountain and dry it in the sun. Now we harvest and take it to the cooperative, and we get high prices, so now we are able to pay our children’s school fees, our medical care, and we have food. We are much better off.”

To learn about ACDI/VOCA's work in Rwanda, click here.