October 2, 2009
The day began by visiting a library project in San Juan. The library is a beautiful community and education center that is not only promoting reading but also the preservation of the local Mayan culture and language.
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We departed San Juan for Antigua to meet with Franklin and his team at As Green As It Gets. They are doing an amazing job for small coffee producers. The producers are seeing a 400% to 600% increase in revenue. This has been achieved by empowering individual producers to control their business, diversifying the farm, and creating markets both in Guatemala and in the United States.
language.
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We ended the day with an outstanding dinner in town with Franklin from As Green As It Gets and Nancy from Fotokids.
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Sam Snyder
Director of Marketing & Philathropy
September 2, 2009
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In Masapia, a rural community of Nicaragua, clean water can be hard to find. The people of Masapia
were consuming contaminated drinking water and thus at-risk of serious waterborne illnesses until now.
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With your help, Pura Vida rehabilitated the community’s well and now over 100 people are receiving
the benefit of clean water.
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Thank you for supporting Pura Vida Coffee and our efforts to help those in need!
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Sincerely,
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Sam
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Create Good.
Every Cup. Every Day.
July 31, 2009
Hildo, President of Coop Michiza
Pura Vida in partnership with the Compass Group, is investing in a small farming community in Oaxaca. The project which began in June will renew the farm land over the next five years and through the creation of a greenhouse fresh vegetables will be available to
the community.
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Hildo, President of Cooperative Michiza in Oaxaca, is overseeing the project and believes that an investment in the land and the health of the people is an investment in creating a more self-reliant community.
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Thank you for supporting Pura Vida Coffee
and our effort to Create Good®!
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Kindly,
Sam Snyder
May 12, 2009
Pura Vida Featured on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
May 7, 2009
THE DONKEY PROJECT
FOR ETHIOPIAN FARMERS
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A donkey is a simple way to ease the burden of everyday life in Ethiopia. From hauling water to carrying 100-pound bags of coffee, a donkey is a perfect gift.
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In partnership with Cooperative Coffees and the Ethiopian Coffee Farming Cooperative, Oromia, Pura Vida is providing ten donkeys to farming families in Ethiopia.
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Each of these ten wonderful animals will transform a family and make a lasting impact for years to come.
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Your support of Pura Vida is vital to make projects like this one happen. Help us increase our impact today, buy now some of our wonderful Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown coffee or donate directly to our charity.
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Thank you for supporting Pura Vida Coffee
and our effort to Create Good!
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Sincerely,
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Sam Snyder
Director, Pura Vida Partners
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Create Good.
Every Cup. Every Day.
April 17, 2009
SUSTAINABILITY FOR SANTA ANITA
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Santa Anita la Union is a coffee growing community of 35 families in
rural Guatemala.
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Pura Vida, along with community support, invested in a new processing machine and center that is reducing waste by 20%, directly increasing Santa Anita’s production.
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An increase in production equals more resources for education, health, and economic development.
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Pura Vida works directly with coffee growing communities like Santa Anita to find creative solutions that promotes sustainability and
self-reliance.
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Thank you for supporting Pura Vida Coffee and our effort to Create Good®!
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Sam Snyder
Director, Pura Vida Partners
March 4, 2009
How did you help to Create Good today?
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Pura Vida is constantly humbled and honored by all that our customers do to Create Good in their everyday lives. We would like to give you the opportunity to share how you, a friend, or loved one Create Good and we will give you a free bag of coffee for the effort.
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Daily we will select one person at random to be our Create Good Featured Poster of the Day. If you are selected we will send you a free bag of your choice of our small batch roasted coffee. Plus, we will feature your post on our Facebook group and through our Twitter page.
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So go ahead and tell us how you helped to Create Good today…Just leave a comment below. Don’t forget to give us your name! We will announce the winner at 10am for the previous day via Twitter and Facebook and will contact you directly about your coffee PRIZE.
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You will need to register and login to leave a comment (see links on left)
March 2, 2009
CLEAN WATER FOR NICARAGUA
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Over the past 24 months, Pura Vida has supported seven communities
throughout rural Nicaragua bringing clean water and sanitation to 334 families.
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Water is scarce in Nicaragua and poverty reaches most families.
Over 80% of the rural indigenous people of Nicaragua
live on less than $1 per day.
In Nicaragua, from Nueva España to El Chagüite,
your purchase and generosity is making a significant impact.
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Thank you for supporting Pura Vida Coffee
and our effort to Create Good!
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Kindly,
Sam Snyder – Program Director
January 22, 2009
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BERTHA GARCIA
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was in the 4th grade when she began with Fotokids, an organization committed to educating the poorest of children in Guatemala. Bertha was curious and fearless in the photos she took of post civil war injustices and assassinations in her community.
In 2005, Bertha nearly lost her life in a mud slide caused by Hurricane Stan but was able to escape by crawling out of a window as the mud filled her house. Over 600 died that day in her town.
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Now 21, Bertha is working on her law degree and works for the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission. With the support of Fotokids and Pura Vida, Bertha has become a community leader and recognizes that the highest aspiration is being of service to others.
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Support others like Bertha, buy our coffee today!
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Thank you for supporting Pura Vida Coffee and our effort to Create Good!
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Sincerely,
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Sam Snyder – Program Director
January 8, 2009
Undergrads Design Study Service Trip to Guatemala – August 2008
Shown left to right: Jessica Madding, Mike Niconchuk, Marcus Cheek, Katy Simon, Kathryn Taylor, Chloe Rousseau, Tomas Valdes, Krista Morris, Ekaterina Titova
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Nine Tufts first year students and a junior designed their own study trip to Guatemala that enabled them to meet with senior officials and set the basis for ongoing work with a coffee cooperative.
The group, one of four organized this summer under the Tisch Active Citizen Summer International program at Tisch College, spent five weeks in the Central American country. They traveled as part of the Building Understanding through International Learning and Development (BUILD) program, sponsored by the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts.
Focusing on sustainable development, earlier BUILD groups worked in Nicaragua and had a primary goal of cultural immersion. Wanting to focus more on community engagement, the group decided to organize their own trip rather than be sponsored by an NGO.
“We knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time, so we wanted to make the most of it,” said Kathryn Taylor, who organized and led the trip with Mike Niconchuk and Toby Bonthrone.
Also participating in the program were Katy Simon, Chloe Rousseau, Tomas Valdes, Marcus Cheek, Ekaterina Titova, Krista Morris, and Jessica Madding.
On arrival in Guatemala City, the students spent the better part of a week meeting with representatives of the UN Development Programme, the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, the local office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Guatemalan Congressman Oliviero García Rodas. The meetings provided a context on economic conditions and the pace of development in the country since the armed conflict ended in 1996.
The group then split the remaining four weeks at the Santa Anita and Nueva Alianza coffee cooperatives, both in Quetzaltenango Department in the country’s Western Highlands.
During each of those stays, the students worked mornings, clearing brush in the jungle, gathering firewood, and picking and shelling macadamia nuts. Afternoons were spent conducting interviews on economics, education, and other community development issues, all with a focus on sustainable development. They lodged in former plantation houses that have been converted into guest quarters.
“We wanted to learn what the community members felt they needed most,” said Taylor. “Working beside them in the morning helped establish the relationships that let us have good interviews.”
Each of the Tufts students speaks Spanish, albeit it at different levels, with three being fully fluent.
Based on their experience, the students decided they want to continue to work with the Santa Anita cooperative, which has not yet established the same level of international contacts that Nueva Alianza has in place. That work will likely focus on helping the cooperative establish contacts with key sources of expertise.
According to Taylor, the Santa Anita cooperative needs to restructure its loan with the Fondo de Tierra, the government organization that facilitated the sale of land after the peace accords were achieved, and it needs more administrative expertise to manage its business. Resolving these issues, among others, will help persuade more members of the 32 families that form the cooperative to stay and work, as opposed to seeking employment in Guatemala City, as now happens. The cooperative also needs a nursery to cultivate coffee seeds so it won’t have to buy them elsewhere at a substantially higher price.
The students followed up their trip by conducting related research and then publishing their findings through the Institute of Global Leadership at Tufts. Their findings included a detailed development plan for Santa Anita. They are currently implementing that plan with the leadership of Santa Anita.
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For more information about the BUILD program at Tufts please visit http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/programs/build