Gender equity, domestic violence prevention, family wellness, and professional development

Project Description: Farmers voted to invest Fair Trade Community Development Funds to create a gender equity policy and implementation plan for the co-op, strengthen the co-op's women's committee, and offer courses to farmers to develop a range of skills including personal finance, decision-making, business management, and marketing.
Reason for the Project: Coffee farmers from this co-op in Honduras identified a need to invest in the women in their cooperative. 442 women are members of the COMSA cooperative, which is 27% of the organization. The focus of the project to educate and increase awareness on topics related to women's health such as pregnancy, child birth post-partum, child care, menopause, healthy lifestyle and mental health, while also raising technical knowledge with an environmental focus and coffee farming skills to help women stay current and increase coffee quality.
Project Outcome: This project launched in 2020 and benefitted nearly 1,200 farmers and their families over these last few years. The Gender Committee, which is comprised of 90% women created a comprehensive series of resources and trainings for its members. The structure and agenda of the training series includes family health sessions and many business development areas such as leadership, current environmental and technical topics (carbon neutral approaches, organic fertilizer, soil fertility and recovery), and practical projects including soil sampling and construction of solar coffee dryers.