Happy Coffee Bean is the Seeds for Development coffee project
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We did some fact finding about the Robusta farmers...
how many women?
Overall, 68% of the farmers are women, with one group having over 80% and one group just 52%. I have found that Walego Gum meetings are always attended by more men than women!
To understand and appreciate how the farmers lives improve in the future, we thought we should find out about them and their lives right now today. So 150 of the farmers were interviewed and asked about how often they eat, how many children they have, who goes to school and if they bikes and phones. We know our farmers have made a lot of progress over the last few years because they have been working with
Send a Cow Uganda and Seeds for Development, and so are far better off than the average person. We found that the farmers are very isolated, living on average 2km from the nearest trading centre (small town) and 20km to the nearest town.
It was very encouraging to learn that the farmers are eating an average of 2 meals a day (89/59%). Just 13% are eating one meal and 29% eating three. It is really important that the farmers not only understand but prioritise food security.
The Excellent Coffee Producers are made up of 5 farmers groups and the numbers interviewed from each group were: Gum Pe Loke - 31, Kane Rac - 34, Kica Ber - 30, Ribe Aye Teko - 30 and Walego Gum – 25.
There's more information here and if you would like to know even more - then just get in touch - we love talking about ourselves.
how many children?
There are an average of 6 children per household, with the most being 14 (2 farmers) down to the least being 1 child (which was an orphan). This is slightly less than the country average of 7 children per woman. On average 68% of the total household population are children.
how many orphans?
115 of the 150 families are caring for orphans – 77%. Four groups gave the number of orphans in the family and there are 222 in total, which gave an average of 2 orphans per household. Note; in Uganda an orphan is a child where one or both parents has died.
how many go to school?
Very encouragingly nearly all of the school aged children are attending school, with the majority at Primary school.
It is especially good to see that as the children get older they remain in school
how many have a bicycle?
More than half of the farmers have a bicycle (54%) – this number varies from 32% in one group up to 80% in another
how many have a phone?
49% of farmers own a mobile phone –the number varies from 27% in one group up to 76% in another.