Solidarity Will Transform the World

Prepare some Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto to eat while reading about CRS' Coffee Project in Nicaragua.

Visit the ORB Interactive Map to find out how Operation Rice Bowl funds the Coffee Project and other CRS projects around the world.

• Introduction
• Download a Study Guide Companion for the Book
• Chapter 1: Building Hope and Solidarity on the U.S./Mexico Border
• Chapter 2: Fighting HIV/AIDS in Zambia
• Chapter 3: Organizing Self-Help Groups in India
• Chapter 4: Peacebuilding in Rwanda
• Chapter 5: Coffee Farming in Nicaragua

The Solidarity Economy: Coffee Farming in Nicaragua.

Catholic Relief Services coffee project began with organizing small farmers like Dolores Calero. Dolores came to cultivate a small plot of land in the town of Siares after being displaced from her mountain farm near Matagalpa in the 1980s by armed combat between the Sandinista army and the Contra resistance. It is not unusual to discover women like Dolores running small coffee farms. Nearly half of Nicaraguan coffee farms are headed by women. Where have the men gone? Some husbands desert, some look for work outside the country to wire money home, and some are dead, killed in the civil war. Between a third and a half of the farmers in CRS' coffee project are women. Dolores described her participation in the coffee project with the excitement of an entrepreneur managing a growing business.

Meet the coffee farmers from the fifth chapter of Solidarity Will Transform the World — "The Solidarity Economy: Coffee Farming in Nicaragua." They have begun to triumph over poverty through participation in the "solidarity economy" characterized by CRS-brokered business relationships and Fair Trade certification.

Two Songs about CRS Partner CECOCAFEN

By Jose Alfredo Torrez Paiz

• Guitar and Lead Vocals: Jose Alfredo Torrez Paiz
• Backing Vocals: Angela Larios (age 11)
• Bass Player: Hector Leonel Manzares

The Business CECOCAFEN

I organized first in the cooperative La Esperanza,
With small farmers within whom we trust.
The business CECOCAFEN pays good prices for the coffee
And they sell it to the foreigners.
First grade organics!
Gustavo feels happy, 
          because he doesn't have to sell to the market.
And he's happy every day, smiling with happiness.

The Question-Asking Domitiila

Domitiila asked me the other day,
"How does CECOCAFEN work?
Because it supports small farmers
Who say that they are not doing so well."

So I responded to her based on my experience,
That all the small producers have better production,
Because they sell organic coffee,

So I tell you, my Domitilia,
That I am happy with my organization,
Because they pay us well,
And I am happy with my production.

And when I go off to sell,
I sell to CECOCAFEN.
Because they pay the best prices,
In the harvest of our coffee.