Strong blend in Colombia

Two coffee projects on two continents: high time to meet each other. That's why a delegation of Burundian coffee farmers will be visiting their Colombian colleagues for a week. 

"We did not know what happened to our coffee. Now we have seen for ourselves. And it has been very interesting to us." Richard Nyokwizera was one of the Burundian coffee farmers who visited Colruyt Group's coffee-roasting plant in 2015. This visit showed that the exchange gave the project fresh oxygen. The Burundian delegation came back to their cooperatives with plenty of new ideas and fresh courage. And thus the idea occurred to organise an exchange between these coffee farmers and their colleagues from our coffee project in Colombia .

On 25 February 2017 it's going to happen. Ambassadors Jonas (Burundi) and Kris (Colombia) will travel to Colombia to meet our Colombian and Burundian partners. Together, they will visit the Kachalú coffee plantations and our three education projects in the region.

Swap experiences

The main goal of the trip is to allow young people from both continents to swap experiences about sustainability and working in cooperatives. How do the others deal with specific difficulties? How do they organise and what obstacles do they stumble on? Across cultures, they will look for common issues and shared visions for the future, motivation and confidence.

"I am particularly curious to meet the Burundian delegation", says ambassador Jonas. "It will make the project really tangible to me. And of course I am looking forward to visiting the schools supported by Collibri Foundation. To see the impact of such a project", he continues. "I will mainly focus on the experience of the Burundian participants. And you can certainly expect great pictures on Instagram!"

A unique opportunity, a great challenge

This is ambassador Kris' summary of the immersion trip. "Until now, I knew the project mainly from the reports I regularly received. This trip will make the project much more concrete to me. I am looking forward to seeing how the coffee farmers' knowledge has evolved. As master coffee-roaster, I work with their raw material every day. So their future is very dear to me. And it will indeed be a challenge to make the click between our three cultures, Western, African and South-American. I can’t wait."

Join us and follow the immersion trip of Jonas, Kris and the coffee farmers on Instagram.

Collibri Foundation

Address

Colruyt Group
Edingensesteenweg 196
1500 Halle

Phone

+32 (0)2 363 55 45
during office hours

Mail

info@collibrifoundation.org

KBO 0753.616.160