At national level in Britain we work with organisations and coalitions including the Fairtrade Foundation, highlighting Nicaragua as an example of the devastating consequence of trade injustice on the majority of the population, and the benefits of fair trade. A major part of our work is educational: to disseminate information and raise awareness in the UK of social and economic issues affecting Nicaragua. We also support Wales NSC, our local groups and 13 towns and communities with twinning links in Nicaragua.
For organisations we work with see links below and go to Nicaraguan Partners >> and Contacts >>

Community library in Leon (photo by Martin Roger)
NSC is stepping up its Education for All campaign>>

Our main areas of work are organising study tours to Nicaragua >>, speaker tours in the UK, campaigning and lobbying activities and distributing reports and briefings.

We have two current priorities:
One is our Education for All campaign: solidarity with the Nicaraguan people in their collective efforts to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal of a complete primary education for all by 2015. Read more by following this link >>

The other priority is our work on Fair Trade and Trade Justice, linking fair trade consumers in the UK with fair trade producers in Nicaragua, and linking activists in both countries. Scroll down the page for information.

Working with trade unions is also extremely important. Since NSC became a charity this is carried out through the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group (NSCAG) >>

Other work:
For our protest against the ban against therapeutic abortion go to >>
You are welcome to email us >>  or phone 020 7272 9619.
You will find further information at CAWN, the Central America Women's Network. www.cawn.org

For information about Nicaraguan banana workers and the fight against Dole Food please see our archive >> and contact Banana Link on 01603 765670 or blink@gn.apc.org      www.bananalink.org.uk

For articles on Trade Justice and DR - CAFTA, as well as on Nicaragua's debt and Violence against Women in Nicaragua refer to our archive >>


* Fair Trade
 

Photo: Our Nicaraguan 'gigantona' (giant) makes her presence felt at the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight in London on 24 Feb.

Credit: Martin Roger.

If you would like to help us at events such as these contact us on
020 7272 9619 or email >>

 

What difference does fair trade make for women in Nicaragua?
Our briefing is available as a 6-sided A5 colour leaflet so if you would like copies for yourself or meetings contact the office on 020 7272 9619 or email us >>

To open the pdf click here >>
 

What difference does fair trade make? Testimonies from Nicaraguan producers.
Interviews and photos by Felicity Butler / CECOCAFEN (Summer 2006)

Coffee has been grown in the northern hills of Nicaragua since 1852 and has been Nicaragua’s main export crop since the 1960s. It provides a living directly for one-fifth of Nicaragua’s population of 5.4 million. In 2000 and 2001 international coffee prices fell to an all time low meaning that producers were receiving less than half the cost of production. In these circumstances fair trade and access to speciality coffee markets have literally been a life line for many small producers.

The Organisation of Northern Coffee Cooperatives (CECOCAFEN) is made up of 11 cooperative organisations representing 2,000 small scale coffee producers. It now sells coffee to the fair-trade and international speciality coffee markets and has gained top ten places each year in the internationally judged ‘Cup of Excellence’ for the outstanding quality of its coffee. CECOFAFEN is run as a business dedicated to social change. www.cecocafen.com

Felicity Butler, who works with CECOCAFEN on a community based agro-ecotourism project, interviewed coffee producers about what coffee means to them and the difference fairtrade has made to their lives. All the producers belong to the organic co-operative of Yucul, Matagalpa.

On what coffee means to producers

“When you first begin producing coffee you have to have patience. I was ready to give up on it at one point and start harvesting another crop but because I have so much love for the plant, I decided to continue cultivating it. I decided to wait affectionately, until it was ready to begin growing once again. I feel so much love for my coffee that I just didn’t have the strength to take the life of something that has given me so much. My coffee has paid for this house … It has taken me three harvests to finish it. In the first harvest I brought the bricks, from the second I brought the sand and in the third I started to begin to build it. I’ve still got parts that I need to finish; but I am improving things one step at a time.” Oscar Zamora

“Coffee to me is a symbol of life more than anything else; because it’s not like harvesting basic grains where there is no possibility of producing anything else. In contrast with coffee, I can plant banana, cocoa and guava trees. Also on the farm, I have mangos, avocados, mandarins, oranges and many other fruit … So to me coffee is symbolic of richness because it allows me to harvest many things and it also creates a better climate. It’s now less hot and there’s more reforestation happening. The climate is generally fresher and nicer; and there are more birds. What I love is leaving an odd banana to ripen on the trees that the birds can eat. I really like the fact that there are so many birds here now” Oscar Zamora

On producing good quality coffee

"Craftsmanship means that we do everything in the process step by step, with a consciousness of quality, a quality that is sustainable, that can be traced and identified but above all, that is sustainable. In general, when you use technology, you have to be aware that technology is always changing and becoming obsolete. It can also be harmful and not add the quality that we would like. This is why, as craftspeople we maintain quality by using local workers, who are from the community itself and more often than not are members of the family. In most cases, there are very few workers on the farm, and this guarantees that the process is done manually, very consciously and strictly. The producers involve themselves in this process and because they feel such love for their coffee: it’s not just simply about receiving the extra price, or receiving an award for quality…. They work from the heart, they love their coffee, they want the best for their coffee and so they send it abroad to their client with much love: so it’s this combination of things that makes us craftspeople of coffee." Hamilton Rivera

“I truly feel that that the small producers are like crafts people because we work with our hands, with our traditional knowledge – a knowledge that has been passed down over time - we work as artisans. We select the coffee with our hands and very often, right up to when we dehusk the coffee, we use a hand driven machine. It is all a tradition that we cultivate with our hands; and a philosophy of working. It’s similar to when you create a clay jug that you make with your own hands; you take great delicacy in forming it. It’s the same for us, the small producers; we do everything with great care, which is something instinctive. This is where the craftsmanship comes in.” Doris Villarreyna

On fairtrade and sustainability

“First of all, as Hamilton Rivera and member of the organic cooperative I want to have the hope of sustainability - for myself as a farmer and for the cooperative. We have to be sustainable and consistent in the long term. We’ve proved that we can support ourselves by producing coffee and I think if we continue producing high quality coffee there will be more and more people interested in quality. So our hopes depend on quality. A large part of this relies on the fact that we maintain these indicators of high quality coffee so that we are able to sell it to the market and then the market takes responsibility for promoting it. This is important because I think it is really easy to distinguish good quality coffee from poor quality coffee. Principally we are trying to be sustainable, which means that the price we receive must also be sustainable….the hope that we have is fairness for the consumer, fairness for the producer, fairness for the person marketing our coffee and fairness for the community” Hamilton Rivera

‘For us fair trade means conserving and improving our land, it means looking after and improving the environment, it means improving the air that we breathe. It also means education for our children and access to health care for our families…it means better opportunities above all for women, opportunities to organise and take decisions. Fair trade means that producers and consumers work together for a better life. Fair trade is more than just a question of money.’
Blanca Rosa Molina, president of CECOCAFEN and producer

‘Here we are in a life long project and we want the consumers and industry to part of the solution. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America yet despite this, it is a country with many possibilities because the people here work hard; it is also a country with incredible natural resources. However, because we have lived through wars, natural disasters and now economic crises which are partly because of the neglect of our government to its people, coupled with a lack of basic services such as health, education and roads. It leaves real change down to us so, we ourselves are building the future… what we want is that the people who are buying our coffee become part of this life long project too. We would like them to keep buying our coffee and pay a fair price; so that we can achieve all the things that we are aiming for.”
Pedro Haslam, manager of CECOCAFEN and producer


Benefits of producing organic coffee

“The first benefit of producing organic coffee is the satisfaction of doing what you say you are doing. If you say it’s important to protect the lives of the people, to protect the environment: the maximum expression of this is to receive organic certification. This has been really important to me because if we say that organic coffee is really important, that it protects the environment but if in … our own houses, we fail to do this, we’re contradicting what we say we are doing and so we’d be failing to be good leaders. So I think if you’re going to preach, you have to at least do so by setting an example." Pedro Haslam

“One of the greatest benefits of organic coffee is that it is so good for your health. Health is invaluable as there is no amount of money that can pay for good health. Before when I was living in a different area, I only produced conventional coffee. Very often, poison from the chemicals I was using, fell into my eyes …of course if you read the ticket you know the dangers of this. The first thing it says is: “Poison is highly dangerous. Avoid contact with eyes and your whole body.
This poisonous chemical was so strong that it burnt my eyes and very often I would have to run to wash it off. After this there’s your back: you see when I wore a knapsack sprayer to treat the coffee plants, poisonous liquid escaped and wet my entire back. When I arrived home there was a burning feeling all over my back and I had to make myself wash- even though I was in so much pain and my skin was irritated. I made myself wash all the poisonous chemicals off because if you don’t there’s a risk that you may become terminally ill, for example in your lungs.
So, I saw that it was completely necessary to change to organic because organic production has no danger. And so just like I am now protecting my health, the consumer of my coffee can protect there’s too. They can consume a healthy, organic product; without any fear that that they are putting themselves at risk because too many chemicals are dangerous”. Oscar Zamora

“I have cultivated my coffee organic, right from the seedlings. Seedlings which are healthy, clean; free of pests and well looked after. After this first stage, you have to plant the seeds in the nursery and then after six months, the small plants are ready to be planted out. Once the plants have been transferred they need to be looked after really well, like you would look after your own children. How I see it is, if you want to bring up a healthy child you take great care right from when he/she is young to make sure that your child is healthy and well protected. It’s the same with our coffee: we want it to be clean and healthy too and protected from insects, pests, infections or any type of animal that may harm it... So this is …coffee of the highest quality that has been well looked after -from the nursery until the harvest. It’s just like us, even though we’re adults, we have to keep looking after ourselves. We have to wash, we have to take medication, and we have to look after our health: it’s exactly the same with our coffee.” Oscar Zamora

For more information on CECOCAFEN's agro-ecotourism project contact turismo@cecocafen.com
tel: tel: 00505 772 4067 or 00505 772 6353

For more information about CECOCAFEN and other Nicaraguan fairtrade organisations, SOPPEXCCA and PRODECOOP, go to Nicaraguan Partners >>

To see the effects of fair trade for yourself, why not consider visiting Nicaragua on one of our study tours? Providing opportunities for people to gain first hand experience of Nicaragua is central to our work. Since 1984 over 1,000 people from Britain have visited Nicaragua with NSC brigades, study tours and delegations to exchange experiences and mutual solidarity with organisations committed to social and economic justice.
Go to Nicaragua Solidarity Tours>> for more details

Finally, for our 2002 report entitled 'Nicaragua: Fair Trade Works' , which includes information on Nicaragua's coffee crisis, click here  >>
 

Other Links

To buy back copies of special reports and books on Nicaragua go to Solidarity Bookshop >>

For information and photos of NSC's past achievements and current work go to About the NSC >>

For organisations we work with go to Nicaraguan Partners >> and Contacts >>