Women in Agriculture
Client
Root Capital
Brief
To document Root Capital’s programmatic work promoting gender equity and inclusion for Women in Agriculture in Rwanda and Guatemala.
Storytellers
Hilda, Jacqueline, Jeanette, Leonor and Veneranda
In the past, a woman was to look after children, cook and go to work for coffee in the field. A woman was fully dependent on her husband in everything. She did not have anyway to have her own money. Without money, life becomes no easier. It requires investment, there’s nothing you can do without money.
Jacqueline | President of Hingakawa Association
I was the only girl among many boys at home, so my mum told me to drop out from school and help her raise my siblings. I started getting money from coffee slowly and once the factory came, I joined the cooperative and things started falling into place.
Veneranda | Team Leader at Maraba Coffee
We used to grind and hang our coffee by ourselves and deliver them to the local market. Later the cooperative was founded in 1999. They buy women’s coffee harvest at a good price in a cooperative.
Veneranda | Team Leader at Maraba Coffee
Root Capital has helped us to become professional farmers. They gave us agronomists, to train us in different things including working for coffee and making our own compost fertiliser. Moreover, with the knowledge and money they granted us, it helped us to expand our coffee fields. A women in a coffee field is now very valuable, she is like an engine to many others.
Jacqueline | President of Hingakawa Association
For us, the support of Root Capital is very important. We have the pre-harvest loan that helps farmers to start cutting and trimming their first coffee beans. This gives them a way to pay their people, so they can start their harvest again.
Hilda | President of the Gender Commission at Asobagri Cooperative
At the end of the month we have meetings with the directors of the board of Asobagri, their legal representatives and the gender commission. Where women have a voice and vote and we can discuss how our members can be helped in the communities.
Hilda | President of the Gender Commission at Asobagri Cooperative
Mostly, older people think they are left with a few days on earth, but we tell them to leave a legacy. We create a culture of saving money among them and whomever cannot afford to save, we support her to find a way that she can get money. So that at the time of sharing money with one another, they may all share happiness together. We want to see women coffee farmers as an example to many others. For others to shine.
Jacqueline | President of Hingakawa Association
It’s the spirit of breaking barriers, of becoming better, of being more efficient, of being more effective, that really brings Root Capital to the table with answers, with partnerships, with mentorship, but more than anything, with a true belief that this can be done. The systems can be changed. That we can design for inclusion.
Leonor | Director
