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Jambo!
Today I am writing to you from Nairobi in Kenya where Peter Hall and I are spending a couple of days to visit the Ndumberi Coffee Cooperative as part of the Brighter Tomorrow At Origin programme.
This morning we spent some time with Sangana, our local buyers, who have helped setting up and managing the relationship with the Ndumberi cooperative. We reviewed everything that happened in 2006 and it looks very impressive ! Four Square first visited the cooperative in March 06 and by May 06 Kenyan Dawn, our first sustainable coffee, was launched in the UK. The project we sponsored in 2006 was the rehabilitation of the 3 wet mills of the cooperative. This included among other things the replacement of drying tables and of fermentation and soaking tanks. The work we sponsored also helped the cooperative secure the Utz Kapeh certification, which sets strict economic, social and environmental criteria. Ndumberi is now the first cooperative Kenya which has this certification, quite an achievement ! Sangana also updated us on the new Kenyan legislation regarding coffee trading that has just come into place and we discussed the proposed plan for 2007. Finally Peter and I gave them a brief update on the activities surrounding the launch of Kenyan Dawn in the UK and North America and the Brighter Tomorrow Programme.
After lunch we set off for the Ndumberi cooperative, about 15km north of Nairobi, where the management board was expecting us. We received a very warm welcome and after an update on the cooperative activities in 2006 we went for a tour of the main mill. So much has changed, it is very impressive. The enthusiasm and optimism of the people there is also amazing. We then discussed further the 2007 proposal : building a dispensary on the land of the cooperative, that will benefit the entire Ndumberi Cooperative. So much can still be done there to make a difference!
Tomorrow we'll visit the coffee auction and take a look at the other 2 mills of Ngaita and Riabai. Can't wait!
Hakuna Matata!
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