Pangeo Coffee

The Smiles Say it All!

Jeff Power — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:24:44 +0000

We just got a fantastic report on the amazing changes happening for women in the village of Tuk’a that we’re helping just south of where our Yirgacheffe coffee comes from.

Check out these pictures!

Here’s what Lishanu (Our GHNI staffer there) wrote:

“This women group works every day on their small farms after our TCD training on income. Now they are coming to understand how this activity is helping them. They can generate a nice income from this activity.

“As an example, for the previous three months, these women received 1200 birr ($65) for EACH member of the group. (Jeff’s note: that’s over double what most families earn in that area). Previously none these women even earned any money of their own. Now they are expecting even more from the next harvest. See the pictures of the proud women showing off their produce with their wide smiles.”

THANK YOU for drinking Pangeo Coffee and helping these Tuk’a women!

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Empowering Village Women

Jeff Power — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:32:15 +0000

Camba Berua women

Our on-the-ground partners helping villages in Indonesia are seeing breakthroughs with the women of the poor village of Camba Berua.

Here’s a recent report we received:

“The initial vision of our women’s micro-enterprise program was to encourage entrepreneurship and to increase the confidence of these ladies. Through the business lessons and lessons on confidence that our team taught, many of the ladies have now developed their own successful businesses — like Daeng Muna, Daeng Leah and Daeng Roswita.

Just 18 months ago, these women were (by their own words) “housewives without a purpose”. Now, through our micro-enterprise program, these women are successful seamstresses and business owners.”

A BIG THANK YOU to the Pangeo community as you help women and families in villages like Camba Berua.

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Shambani Kenya, grateful for your help

Jeff Power — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:28:54 +0000

a Shambani mama

Every cup of Pangeo Coffee you drink or serve sends help to one of the many poor villages we’re coaching… to help them sustainably escape crushing poverty.

Shambani village, in the heart of drought-ridden central Kenya, is one of ”our villages.” Shambani was tragically caught up in the area’s tribal clashes just over a year ago, both giving and receiving violence.

One day, an opposing tribal group burst into their village, burning every home and killing three people. Suddenly everything changed for them.

In the past year, our staff partners have come alongside Shambani and the other tribal groups in creating healthy peace negotiations. And since then, we’ve been helping Shambani rebuild their homes, and begin working toward true sustainable development.

THANK YOU for drinking and serving Pangeo Coffee, and sending help to Shambani and our other Kenyan villages by doing so. You are truly part of this community of care.

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How asking for the toilet saved babies

Jeff Power — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 02:46:33 +0000

Tanah Keke village men

Asking to use the toilet can end up saving babies.

One of our village-coaching staff, as I’m here in Indonesia, told this story today:

“Several years ago when we had just begun to help a new village, I was sitting with some men in the village and I asked where I could use the latrine. They looked at me dumbfounded, and a bit offended. “Look around you,” one of the men said, as if I was crazy. “How much jungle do you see among our homes? It’s everyhwere! Use the jungle. Why do you ask where you can use the latrine?” After that they made fun of me on that topic for months.

The sickness and motality rate among babies and infants in the village was certainly not zero. But they had never learned that human waste is the highest cause of infant sickness and death.

We knew we needed to teach lessons on how each home can have its own properly designed latrine (one of our standard village topics worldwide). But we also knew they were clearly not interested in latrines. They wouldn’t understand the science of micro-organisms, so we had to devise a clever way to get the point home.

At our next Wellness-training day for the village we took a stick and drew a 20-foot “map” of their village on the ground. We marked where homes and jungle are. Then we gave each person a small bag of yellow powder. We told them, “Dump your yellow powder at the spot on the map where you usually do your business each day.”

One by one, each person went and dumped their yellow powder on a spot representing where they toileted themselves. After everyone was finished, it looked like the whole village was covered in yellow powder. We said, “This is what happens in just one day. How much poop and pee is in your village from this whole year? How much the last 5 years?”

Everyone suddenly felt like they were going to get sick. One man said, “I need to go home and throw up.”

Digging a latrine for his household

Today, every family in the village has its own properly-constructed latrine, and the sickness rate of the children has already decreased.

Last week I was in the village and the topic of latrines came up. Even though they have had latrines for less than a year, they are already making fun of nearby villages, saying, “They are so backward they don’t even have latrines.”

So we said, “Then let’s go help them learn what you have learned!”

It’s stories like this, of how our partner staff are helping transform poor villages worldwide, that make me honored to serve them with all of you who are jumping in to drink Pangeo Coffee and help.

THANK YOU for your incredibly generous interest and partnership!

–Jeff

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Announcing “$1/bag back to villages” commitment

Jeff Power — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:11:54 +0000

$1 per bag donation back to villages!

So… we decided to make it simple.

From our inception last year, Pangeo Coffee was launched to help the poorest villages of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. From the start, our number one goal has been to fuel excellent development work in poor villages, by fueling the coffee-loving community’s desire to drink high-quality coffee that does just that.

And we’re off to a great start!

Meanwhile, some thoughtful members of new community were asking, “Just how much goes back to help the villages?” For a while we were talking about a high percentage of company profits. Higher than typical industry standards. Because our #1 value is to elevate the neediest parts of our world.

But a smart friend suggested, “Why don’t you just commit to a minimum amount per bag that goes to the villages? That way, whether profits are up or down, we know how our purchase is helping.”

Brilliant.

And now we have.

So… every time you purchase a bag (or a bunch of bags) of Pangeo Coffee, you know that your purchase results in specific help being donated directly back to village development programs in the villages we serve in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (through our on-the-ground humanitarian partner, GHNI.org).

It’s nice to keep things simple.

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Video: Sri Lankan Tea Picking

Jeff Power — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:11:18 +0000

Shooting video about tea

We’re in Sri Lanka’s mountainous Central Highlands, helping poor villages for the week.

Much of the world’s best tea is grown right here. And most of the villagers here are employed by the tea industry. Tea picking, and tea processing, is their life.

That’s certainly true for most of the adults in our village of 2,200 people that we’ve committed to, Nallathaniya.

Watch them in their beautiful, yet poor, occupation (video by Julian Gilliam).

Sri Lankan Tea Picking from Pangeo Coffee on Vimeo.

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Helping villages in Sri Lanka, world’s tea giant

Jeff Power — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:17:55 +0000

A Nallathaniya cutie

Hello from Sri Lanka, one of the world’s tea capitals.

I’m in the central highlands with our GHNI.org Sri Lankan staff, and I’ve brought employees of a company (The Wedding Cafe, in Honolulu) who just partnered to help a poor village through GHNI’s Adopt-a-Village program.

We’re in the village of Nallathaniya… and we’re all falling in love with their warmth, their smiles, their attitude, and their hunger to learn ways to lift themselves out of their severe poverty with a little hand up.

GHNI is just getting started with Nallathaniya — we’ve chosen a fantastic young leader to be the “Champion” of the development work, and he has assembled a committee of people who are respected leaders and have the hearts of the villagers.

The following pics capture just a bit of our experience here this week (most by Julian Gilliam):

Nallathaniya's beautiful people

Meeting village families

Highlight -- singing and dancing with Nallathaniya's children!

Nallathaniya boys

Tanna (the business owner) is always the Pied Piper

Thiviyanathan, our "Champion" in the village

Thiviyanathan with his wife, children and parents

Almost everyone is in the tea industry, typically with poverty wages

Shooting video about the tea-picking process

Climbing to find clean water sources, to pipe into the village

Getting close to the clean water source

Day's end, in town, buying pipes for clean water

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Cool water and growing businesses in Ola Nagele

Jeff Power — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:33:54 +0000

Fresh water still flows in Ola Nagele

I’m in central Kenya now.

The destructive tribal fighting here has been calm for several months, so it was safe to go out and visit each of the four villages we’ve been helping.

Ola Nagele is one of our villages that’s still on track and applying our TCD training.

Despite the fighting, the 1.5 kilometer fresh water line and tank we helped them install is still working beautifully. The women of the village can still save hours of walking each day and get cool, refreshing water right in the village.

We gathered with the women early one morning:

Cool water on hot days

Enough water for the whole family

With more time available, many of the women are now applying our income-generation lessons and starting businesses right in the village.

Fatuma and her mother Abdia started a tea, vegetables and charcoal shop. From the day they opened their shop, they increased the family income from about $1 per day to over $4 per day. And they are perfectly on track to pay back our small loan in less than the 6 months allotted.

Fatuma and Abdia in their shop

Another woman named Safia launched a shop where people can get their mobile phone charged while they buy simple supplies for their homes.

Safia's mobile charging and household supplies

We’re thrilled for the steps that the village of Ola Nagele is taking to secure a different future for themselves and their children.

Thank you for your part in helping them!

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Connecting villages, by football of course

Jeff Power — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:57:38 +0000

Garmaam & Megaladi teams

What better way to have fun and connect two villages we’re serving, than to serve up a friendly competition of football (American soccer)?

We arranged for this fun day of football between two villages we’re serving in here in east Ethiopia — Garmaam and Megaladi. Megaladi had home field advantage.

We played with the kids from Megaladi while we waited for the Garmaam team to arrive. When they did, we handed out uniforms we’d purchased for all the players (perspective: it’s now probably the only other clothes they have). Then the young men, with extra enthusiasm, battled it out in friendly fun.

It was a hot day, but the great energy and play was refreshing for everyone.

Oh, and the score? Garmaam won 2-0. But we gave game balls to BOTH villages to take home, giving them many more hours of fun back in their village.

Arriving in Megaladi for the game

Duck, duck, goose (Somali: dog, dog, goat) while waiting!

The Megaladi team is ready

The Garmaam team arrives!

Game time!

Battling in the hot sun

Great moves

Kids on the sidelines got stickers

Other kids told us how they felt about us

Daaaaang cute

Garmaam team wins 2-0

Everyone's happy for a great day

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Visiting Harrar coffee farms

Jeff Power — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:18:49 +0000

Harrar coffee growers

Today we made the climb from our dry flatlands villages, up into the Harrar area hills, to see the current crop of world-famous Harrar coffee beans, newly growing on the coffee trees.

It was a bumpy, jarring ride up to almost 10,000 feet above sea level. This is truly “highlands coffee!” But the beauty of the scenery and the kindness of several coffee families made the arduous journey totally worth it.

Coffee across Ethiopia is mostly grown by small, family farmers, who have anywhere from 50 to 200 trees. Our guide for the day was Mr. Abeba, the Harrar area government coffee quality inspector. He helped increase our understanding of quality coffee growing techniques in the Harrar area.

Check out these pics, and consider joining us on a future volunteer trip!

In the Harrar hills

New Harrar coffee beans growing

Shy Harrar farmers

Beautiful Harrar coffee trees and people

Hearing from the Harrar coffee families

Grateful for the day to visit Harrar coffee families!

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