Coffee soap factory helps east Congo women make ends meet
Nsimire M'Buhendwa used to spend long days working in fields surrounding her village in east Democratic Republic of Congo, only to return home with backaches and barely enough money to put food on the table.
But the mother of four's struggles eased after she joined a women's cooperative producing coffee and coffee-infused soap bars sold in five Congo provinces, Burundi and Rwanda.
"I used to be a woman that left home in the morning and came back in the evening with almost nothing, not knowing how my children would study," the 43-year-old said.
Started in 2018, Heshima Coffee has created a source of income for around 1,500 women and youths in rural parts of east Congo, giving out free coffee plant seedlings and connecting members to fair-trade buyers once beans have been harvested and processed.
"Members have the guarantee of selling their coffee at a good price," founder Solange Kwidja Kahiriri said in the city of Bukavu, where the cooperative is based.
Around 100 women are employed at a Heshima-owned factory in Bukavu that produces about 5,000 soap bars per week from coffee beans. Read More...
