Coffee and Gender Equity
Which of the eight Millennium Development Goals most applies to Fair Trade month? If you said Goal 8 which is to Develop a Global Partnership for Development, you wouldn't be wrong. Promoting Fair Trade is one step that the wealthier countries can take to enhance this partnership with the developing world.
But there is another goal that applies very well in this case. It's Goal 3, which is to Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women. The movie Strong Coffee: The Story of Cafe Femenino tells the story of a coffee cooperative in northern Peru where women are the principal decision-makers. Here is a short description of the movie:
STRONG COFFEE tells the story of Café Femenino—a revolutionary idea that is helping people in need all over the world. Café Femenino beans are the first and only coffee beans grown entirely by women farmers.
Remarkably, the Café Femenino project is helping to change long-established attitudes and weaken the grip of machismo in remote farming communities. In response, a cultural shift is taking place. There is more equality between women and men, abuse and violence towards women are decreasing, and the quality of life in these regions is improving.
The movement is about to spread around the world. There is an effort via the Vancouver (WA)-based Cafe Femenino Foundation to duplicate the experience of northern Peru in other coffee-growing countries.
The movie is scheduled to be shown at three locations in Canada and one in the U.S. over the next several months. The U.S. screening will be at the Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival in Colorado Springs on Saturday, Nov. 3. Hopefully, this remarkable movie will soon come to a movie theater near you or will be available for wide distribution via other means.
In the meantime, here is a link to a trailer.
This is great! Carlos - have you seen Black Gold? I still haven't had a chance to see it, but I hear it's great.
Posted by: Holly | October 04, 2007 at 06:16 PM
Holly: Thanks. I thought it was very timely with Fair Trade month. And I do hope it's distributed soon. I actually have not seen Black Gold. I'll see if it's available on Netflix. I also went ahead and put a link to the Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival.
Posted by: Carlos Navarro | October 04, 2007 at 06:57 PM
Hi Carlos, thanks for the posting. One point... the Café Femenino Foundation is based in Vancouver, Washington, USA...not Canada.
Posted by: Carmen | October 06, 2007 at 02:02 AM
Carmen: Thanks for pointing that out. I've made the change.
Posted by: Carlos Navarro | October 06, 2007 at 08:39 AM