Friends,
Just as the pandemic continues to disrupt life here in the States, it continues to disrupt life in San Gaspar Chajul. Labor shortages and lack of materials are disrupting project development in the Ixil region just as they are in the States.
While faced with these challenges in 2021, The Coffee Trust helped rebuild homes and coffee farms that were washed away during last year's hurricanes. We supported the CopiChajulense honey producers with new hives. We worked with the women’s micro-credit and savings group to form a lending and savings cooperative. We supported Ixil youth with higher education scholarships and we helped the small township of Chacalté improve security for their primary school.
And, we aren’t stopping there.
In 2022:
We will improve security at Chacalté’s secondary school, improve the academic curriculum, and access to the internet. We will work with Chacalté on an ambitious project stimulated by the town’s local effort to build a road from Chacalté to Juil. The road will open a pathway from Chacalté to more than 15 villages that currently bypass Chacalté completely, unleashing a wave of economic activity for the town. We will also support training and entrepreneurial efforts in Chacalté for the people to capitalize on the newly developing economy.
We will provide training for the women’s micro-credit and savings group to develop a protocol for the new cooperative that will offer larger loans to members who have had successful experiences through group loans and will offer members better interest rates on savings than interest rates from traditional banks.
We will restart the Mountain Microorganisms project with Chajulense coffee farmers that had stalled due to Covid-19.
We will continue supporting the CopiChajulense honey producers with new hives.
We will continue to offer higher education scholarships to Ixil youth. Three of our previous scholarship recipients are working for Asociación Chajulense, CopiChajulense and Asociación Chajulense de Mujeres.
We are developing a new opportunity around Lake Atitlan with a women’s organization with a unique women-centered/whole family initiative. More on that later.
We have a lot to accomplish in 2022 and we know the pandemic will be challenging us throughout the year. But, we are coffee people. And, we are all in this together.
With 33 years of experience in development, most in Guatemala, we have learned so well that if you want to plant hope, you have to dig deep. Please dig deep this holiday season for our producer partners in Guatemala.
From all of us at The Coffee Trust, wishing you a warm and joyous holiday season.
P.S. Higher education scholarships in Chajul make a world of difference and last a lifetime.
A full five-year scholarship costs $6,000.
A one-year scholarship costs $1,200.
A one-quarter scholarship costs $300.
A one-month scholarship costs $100.