[Newleaf] An Afternoon with a Fair Trade Coffee Farmer

[Ellen Grace Habecker Green]

During this coming weekend, Amherst Fair Trade is sponsoring a Dominican coffee
farmer/activist named Maria Balbuena, to speak about social justice & women’s
issues as represented in and out of sustainable farming & Fair Trade venues.
Maria will only be in the valley for only a few days, & we are pleased to
announce that she has been welcomed to speak at Hampshire College on Sunday,
October 16th, from 12:30 to 2:00, in FPH 107. She will also be speaking at the
Yellow Sofa in Northampton from 3:00 to 4:30 on Sunday the 16th. The events are
in English and Spanish, and are open to the public.

Since the causes Maria works with are so broadly applicable (gender empowerment,
sustainable farming, alternate economies, and education to raise awareness
across all of these issues), please help us show support for the social justice
issues this remarkable woman has devoted her life to by promoting this event
within your student group, in your classes, and among your friends.

For more information relevant to on-campus promotion, including posters, please
email mrg09 at hampshire.edu (Marushka) or egg09 at hampshire.edu (Ellen).

For general information about Amherst Fair Trade, you can contact the
organization’s Chair, Yuri Friman, at amherstfairtrade at earthlink.net.

You can also find general information at:
http://www.pcusa.transfairusa.org/get-involved/blog/fair-trade-hero-maria-isabel-balbuena-dominican-republic.
(The information below is excerpted from this site).

-Bio of María Balbuena-

María Isabel comes from a long line of farmers, but her work in the coffee
industry started in an office: the National Coffee Board of the Dominican
Republic where she helped coffee farmers export their product to the
international market. Despite growing up in the city, life was not easy for
María Isabel – she began working at the age of sixteen, long before she
graduated high school and became a single mother at 24 years old. For María the
struggle to both work and educate herself at the same time did not deter her
determination to fulfill her dreams, and at age 30 she graduated with a
university degree in philosophy and administration.

María Isabel’s passion has always been to support mothers and children – as a
single mother herself she understands the struggles that women with limited
resources face. Her life’s mission is to empower women, and today María
proudly works on building her own organization called the Association of
Dominican Women in Coffee. She is also the country director for the
organization Café Femenino, a social program to empower women coffee producers
in rural communities around the world. In the Dominican Republic, the Café
Feminino program also fights child hunger and organizes women who own land.

“All the world has the right to education and food and shelter,” says María as
she explains the hardships faced by many impoverished farm workers who rely on
their children to educate themselves with the money earned from the Fair Trade
premiums. Education is a luxury in developing countries like the Dominican
Republic, and, according to María, “illiteracy is a negation of our universal
rights.” Today, with the money earned from Fair Trade, students who come from
the coffee-producing villages sometimes even able to study abroad and return
home to inspire their parents to pursue an education.

María's community work doesn't end with education. She is dedicated to coffee
and works hard every day to support the work of FEDECARES, a Fair Trade
cooperative of 7,500 members that provides social and business services
to support sustainable development for coffee families. FEDECARES was one of the
first organizations to become Fair Trade certified in 1991 and continues to
thrive with Fair Trade coffee benefits, improving income of producers
and caring for the natural resources of the Dominican Republic. The welfare of
small farmers in the Dominican Republic has improved, and María is grateful for
the efforts of Fair Trade as it continues to benefit producers in
coffee producing nations.