Wake up to the power of coffee

Every morning it feels as if our busy office doesn’t fully function until we’ve had our first coffee of the day. But for the people of Jinotega, Nicaragua, coffee isn’t just a caffeine kick – it’s a means of transforming the lives of entire communities.

Gustavo Adolfo Talavera is a coffee farmer and community leader in Jinotega. He is a founding member of a cooperative which has been selling coffee through Christian Aid partner Soppexcca (pronounced so-pecks-ka) for over 12 years.

Gustavo is illiterate, but he wanted his children to be educated. Soppexcca gave the community a better price for their coffee and helped them improve the quality of what they were producing through training. They ploughed their profits back into their own community and not only managed to build the school Gustavo dreamt of, but a health centre as well.

So this Christian Aid Week could you give up coffee and donate what you would have spent? Perhaps you could hold a coffee morning? Or could you sacrifice a few hours to help with door to door collecting? Coffee may be just a caffeine kick to us, but for poor communities in Nicaragua it could help lift them out of poverty.

£14 could buy enough coffee seeds enabling a farmer to plant 0.7 hectares of coffee

Christian Aid Week is from 15-21 May.

For more information visit www.christian-aid.org or call 01454 415 923