Our neighbours the AJC put on a huge annual festival of Jewish film. This year, one day (this coming Monday) will be devoted to films about Jewish activism in Africa. This one in particular struck me as an account of a wonderful project that makes the world better in several ways at once:
Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean
Many lives revolve around the coffee bean, the second-most traded commodity in the world. Historically, in Uganda, coffee farmers saw only small profits due to low international prices, inefficient government marketing, and exploitative intermediaries. In 2003, a Jewish coffee farmer in Uganda approached his Christian and Muslim neighbors - all struggling coffee farmers - and asked that they put aside their differences and join forces to forming Delicious Peace Coffee Cooperative. To further economic development, they partnered with an American fair-trade distributor to produce Mirembe Kawomera Delicious Peace Coffee [click to purchase], the first organic, kosher, Fair-Trade Certified Ugandan coffee to reach the U.S. market. The standard of living of the farmers is now improving, and their message of building bridges of peace and fair wages is spreading to coffee customers in the United States. In particular, their efforts have inspired many Jewish congregations, social action committees, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Projects and interfaith groups across America to purchase and raise awareness about the farmers' coffee.
posted by Eldan Goldenberg
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