Here, every single member of the farming community joined in, and knew everything about coffee – from how best to grow and care for it, which parts should be discarded, and what makes good coffee ‘good’.
What Rebecca and the other Coffee Study Program students witnessed was a shared expertise, an integrated approach born from the community coming together as a whole.
To ensure that the people of Neiba and of other vulnerable areas across the globe are able to thrive, help is needed. Tools or funds might be unavailable for their knowledge and expertise to develop into a business capable of providing them with sustainable means of living.
The Lavazza Foundation and others are doing just that, for instance by helping to finance farming equipment that allows the community to process the coffee beans themselves and reach the global markets.
Approaches such as this, Rebecca believes, are key.