The Increasing Community Resilience in Oecusse Project
September 23, 2021
World Neighbors Indonesia
October 13, 2021World Neighbors Announces New Project to Increase Incomes in Peru’s Coffee Producing Regions
Waterfall in the highest part of the way to Quillabamba, at almost 5000 meters above sea level (15000 feet)
Oklahoma City – Oct. 7, 2021 – World Neighbors today announced a new collaboration with The Starbucks Foundation. For the next two years, The Starbucks Foundation will fund new community-based programs in the Cusco and Cajamarca regions of Peru.
The comprehensive World Neighbors programs will focus on improving the lives, livelihoods and health of coffee-growing communities and diversifying incomes, especially for women. Major components include:
- Improving livelihoods and family income by facilitating access to credit, markets, finance and technical assistance, especially for women and young adults. Women-led savings and credit groups will play a key role in capital accumulation and investment.
- Diversifying and improving sustainable farming by applying techniques and practices that increase resilience to adverse conditions, allowing families to produce more of their own food, improve their nutrition and increase incomes. Communities will share best practices through Farmer Field Schools, and trainings will promote women’s leadership in farming initiatives.
- Improving community health through education on sanitation, nutrition and hygiene practices, including on COVID-19 prevention measures.
The project in Peru is expected to directly involve 2,400 women and benefit 20,000 community members across 37 rural coffee-growing communities. This is part of The Starbucks Foundation’s goal to empower 250,000 women and girls in origin communities by 2025.
For the past three years, The Starbucks Foundation has been the primary funder for a major World Neighbors project in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. The project improved the lives of 3,000 marginalized, rural families in 30 coffee-growing communities. Community-based initiatives helped diversify and increase incomes, improve health and increase economic and social inclusion, especially of women. The successful approach implemented in Guatemala will underlie World Neighbors’ training and other initiatives in Peru.
“We are grateful The Starbucks Foundation has chosen to build on the successes our collaboration produced in Guatemala,” said Kate Schecter, President and CEO of World Neighbors. “Especially as Peru emerges from the pandemic, this new project will help ensure that thousands of coffee farmers and their families build a sustainable path to better lives.”
About World Neighbors
Founded in 1951 by Dr. John L. Peters, World Neighbors works with people who are struggling to survive in some of the poorest places on earth. Instead of short-term aid, World Neighbors creates change that lasts by working alongside villagers, helping them first to identify their critical needs and then to become their own problem solvers. Its mission is to inspire people and strengthen communities to find lasting solutions to hunger, poverty and disease and to promote a healthy environment.
World Neighbors has transformed the lives of more than 28 million people in 45 countries. In the last year, over 600,000 people in 13 countries benefited from World Neighbors’ programs. Visit www.wn.org for more information.