In 1995, when Rosa Amelia Centeno wanted to set up a coffee growing project in her northern Nicaraguan community, she invited 20 women to work with her.
Only six women, mostly single mothers, helped her start. The others were forbidden by their husbands or fathers to participate.
Now, 13 years later, 24 women belong to the collective, growing organic coffee in the poor, rural area to sell to Germany and the United States.
Centeno, who toured Saskatchewan during National Fair Trade Week in early May, said the local men called the women in the project prostitutes and lesbians. Centeno’s own husband got upset when his friends told him he was being bossed around by his wife.
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But it wasn’t just coffee the women were raising; it was also their consciousness.
The women gained strength by holding regular workshops to talk about gender equity, women’s rights, literacy and reproductive health.
“Once we understood our bodies, we realized we had to defend them,” she said through a translator.
“We talked about voluntary motherhood. We’d never heard of a Pap test …. With this knowledge we were able to resist the mocking of the men.”
The group started with nothing, but through the help of Fundacion Entre Mujeres (FEM), or Between Women Foundation, and its overseas funders, it was able to obtain a loan to buy a small 1.8 acre farm and start growing.
The negative talk dwindled when the women produced their first crop and earned some money.
“Any kind of ideological discussion is not useful without economic power,” she said.
Centeno said it is still not easy being a woman in a poor country. The government gives other coffee growers free fertilizers and chemicals, but the women’s co-op won’t use those, preferring to grow organically because of their new understanding of the importance of health.
FEM has helped set up three other coffee growing co-ops in the area, and last year the four united to sell 5,000 pounds of green coffee beans.
When asked how Canadians can help these co-ops, Centeno said they should become conscientious consumers and learn to eat better by buying organic food that is easy on the earth.
Her goal is to encourage young Nicaraguan women to form similar co-ops so they can learn the power of working together and to connect with their consumers.
Centeno’s oldest daughter has joined her co-op and is attending university.
