Our 2023 Giveback Project

Colectivo Rokunin in Veracruz, Mexico

The Chain Collaborative and Yield Coffee have partnered once again to invest in local leaders’ community projects in coffee-growing communities.

This time, the partnership is supporting Colectivo Rokunin, in Veracruz, Mexico as they lead a transformative, indigenous-led project that uplifts producers through investment in their coffee business, improved food security and the preservation of their native language.

About Colectivo Rokunín

Colectivo Rokunín (CR) is a community-centered collective that works alongside coffee growers from indigenous communities in the Sierra de Zongolica of Mexico. They lead projects that centralize art, sustainable agriculture, cultural preservation, and gender equity.

The coffee producers collaborating with CR named their group “Mahtlaktle Chanehkameh,” or "Ten Families" in English, in order to describe their group and honor their Nahuatl heritage.

Colectivo Rokunín and Mahtlaktle Chanehkameh fully embraced the Chain Collaborative’s Incubator process, maintaining an open mind to new ideas and creating space for new leaders to emerge.

YIELD Coffee is partnering with Colectivo Rokunín on the following projects:

First, in the realm of coffee, they are conducting soil analyses, providing technical assistance to their members, and expanding processing infrastructure so that producers can improve their coffee quality and achieve higher prices. They’ve already begun holding initial group workshops, building their coffee drying infrastructure, purchasing machinery and conducting soil analyses.

Second, youth in the community are leading an initiative to offer Nahuatl classes for young people to preserve their community’s native language and culture. To date, they've led four language learning sessions and also created beautiful signs with environmental messages in Nahuatl and Spanish to hang up in their community.

View this short video to learn more about the impact of The Chain Collaborative's Incubator Program throughout the coffee industry

PREVIOUS PROJECTS

BIBLIOTECA GIRASOL, NICARAGUA

For our 2022 Giveback Project, we partnered with The Chain Collaborative to jumpstart a construction fund for a new classroom at Biblioteca Girasol in the coffee-growing region of Matapalo, Nicaragua.⁠

We also assisted in funding a new program that offers scholarships to students to cover their bus fares and school supplies and provide after-school academic support and mental health services. This program allows the library's youth leaders to complete high school, continue giving back to the community, and pursue their goals.⁠
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And with your support, we donated $5,500 and helped crowdfund an additional $2,261!⁠
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Biblioteca Girasol is also very close to building its second classroom. The new library classroom will be over twice the size of the current classroom. ⁠
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Having additional space will allow the library to ⁠
1. Offer more than one activity per day⁠
2. Welcome new groups (especially women) to participate in workshops ⁠
3. Build community by welcoming larger groups at events

Links: 
Biblioteca Girasol Instagram
Biblioteca Girasol Facebook
The Chain Collaborative Website
 

NOW AFRICA INITIATIVE

In 2020-2021, we partnered with The Chain Collaborative to bring clean water and sanitation to a coffee community in southwestern Uganda. The Chain Collaborative is a groundbreaking non-profit organization in the coffee sector that invests in local leaders to drive livelihood developments to give back in their own communities.

In Uganda, they invest in the Now Africa Initiative, a social enterprise located in the southwestern part of the country, in an area called Nyamigoye Parish. In addition to providing market access, training, and increased income to farmers, Now Africa Initiative also manages the Karama Education Center, a primary school they founded in 2016 with the support of The Chain Collaborative. Since its opening, due to its popularity and performance, Karama Education Center has been steadily expanding its student roster and impact.

However, as students return to school in 2021 after a year of homeschooling in 2020 due to COVID, sanitation and hygiene remain paramount. Unfortunately, Karama Education Center’s sanitation facilities were built to accommodate only one-third of the current student body, as the school started with 130 students. To meet the growing demand of 350+ students at Karama Education Center and ensure positive health outcomes, YIELD Coffee funded the sanitation facility expansion at the school, at a critical time when it was needed most.

Beyond this collaboration, YIELD Coffee also partnered with The Chain Collaborative and one of their foundation partners, the Conshohocken/Plymouth/Whitemarsh Rotary Club, to launch a coffee fundraiser. Together, YIELD Coffee, CPW Rotary, and TCC raised $5,000 to complete the installation of solar power and a clean water facility at Karama Education Center--bringing both electricity and purified water to the community for the first time!

To learn more about The Chain Collaborative or donate directly, visit thechaincollaborative.org.

LA GRECIA, NICARAGUA