From a UK paper we find this story of a fair trade cam­paigner vis­it­ing one of the cof­fee coop­er­ates he advo­cates for. Jim Thomas vis­ited the Peace Kawom­era Co-operative in Uganda, a co-op that includes 25,000 farm­ers. The farm­ers have been able to put their chil­dren through school and save a lit­tle money thanks to the co-operative.

From the Bex­hill Observer, we find this inter­view with Thomas.

“Sus­sex Downs Col­lege has been mak­ing links and work­ing with com­mu­ni­ties and projects in South Eastern Uganda for over four years now.

“The col­lege has organ­ised study tours for stu­dents that allow them the oppor­tu­nity to wit­ness devel­op­ment work, as well as giv­ing them a glimpse of what life is like for so many peo­ple in Africa and all over the world – a life trapped in poverty.

“Still, through all of the strug­gles and suf­fer­ing we saw, there is hope. I spent seven weeks at a project called Bun­gokho Rural Devel­op­ment Cen­tre (BRDC] and was priv­i­leged enough to go out to visit com­mu­ni­ties being trained through the centre’s out­reach work.

“The cen­tre approaches vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties and forms a rela­tion­ship. They then ask the peo­ple what prob­lems they face, and coop­er­a­tively, as a group they try to find solu­tions. It is all about empowerment.

Since its estab­lish­ment in 1995 BRDC has helped over 20,000 peo­ple through out­reach work alone. BRDC offers knowl­edge and advice and does not give hand­outs. In the com­mu­nity they advise peo­ple on many issues rang­ing from get­ting safe water and mak­ing good com­post for their crops to gen­er­at­ing income from sell­ing veg­eta­bles, etc.

“At the cen­tre they give train­ing in prac­ti­cal skills such as car­pen­try, build­ing, tai­lor­ing and agriculture.

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