Coffee Rwanda was formed when the founder, Karl Weyrauch ,along with his wife Patricia Boiko and their daughter Anna, visited Rwanda to teach Public Health to the staff of Never Again Rwanda. Through a roundabout series of coincidences, they found themselves at COOPAC, a Fairtrade coffee cooperative near Lake Kivu. They had an incredible meeting with Emmanuel Rwakagara, the managing director and came away determined to help the cooperative and other Rwanda organizations.

Karl offered to bring some samples back to Seattle and thus was born his interest in Rwandan coffee: as a vehicle for nation building in the aftermath of genocide. By helping to combat poverty among its 2198 member farmers, COOPAC is greatly helping to improve their health as well. Interestingly, COOPAC includes among its members individuals of the Batwa, or pygmy ethnic group, a marginalized minority inside Rwanda.

This venture is really about the health, education and welfare of impoverished families who live on average earnings of about fifty cents per day in one of the least-developed nations on earth.

Another amazing thing about COOPAC is that it literally serves to help heal the wounds of the 1994 genocide, made known to American audiences in the film, "Hotel Rwanda".

Women sort the beans by hand and as they do, they talk - building relationships between the genocide killers and the surviving victims - a meaningful and sustainable avenue for reconciliation.

With the proceeds from this year's crop, we would like to establish a physician-teacher exchange program with the Kibagabaga hospital in Kigali; initiate a palm-based biodiesel demonstration project in collaboration with the Rwanda School Project and contribute further to the work of Never Again Rwanda.

Thanks for your interest in this project and in the welfare of the people of Rwanda. Or, as they say in Rwanda, "Murakoze cyane!”