Meet the "Basic Organic Coffee Cooperative"

June 18th, 2017

Our "Basic Organic Coffee Cooperative." Elected chairman Narayan Bhattarai stands third from the left and the Sakute offical stands third from the right. The committee is 3 men and 4 women, and represents 4 different casts within the community.

This week with the help of our own Greg Robinson and Narayan Bhattarai Mama, Conscious Impact formed the Takure branch of the Nepali based coffee cooperative! On Saturday we were excited to set up a training with a representative from the Sakute Coffee Cooperative in Nepal and the local community. Sakute is a town in Sindhupalchowk, the same district as Takure and only a short bus ride away. A representative from the cooperative came to Takure this week to provide a training regarding the structure, requirement and benefits of the co-op model. To join the cooperative members were asked to provide citizen cards and passport photographs. We are so excited that 46 women and men turned in their paperwork and the cooperative has officially formed! We now have 26 members from Takure and 20 members from Bimire. Others in the community will still have the opportunity to join in the coming years.

Members meet for a training with a representative from Sakute.

The cooperative has been named the "Basic Organic Coffee Coopetavie." Basic means to be directly connected to the earth through simple and organic means of farming.

Apart from forming the cooperative, the members sat together and elected a 7 person committee to represent the "Basic Organic Coffee Cooperative." Narayan Bhattarai was unanimously selected as the chairman of the committee. Of those elected as representatives 4 were men and 3 were women. The elected committee represents families from 4 casts, Brahmin, Tamang, Magar, and Dahal. We're so excited for this opportunity to have women and men working together as well as families form 4 casts.

A huge thank you to our agriculture team and Mandu Tapa (third from the left).

The cooperative is Nepali run and organized and supports an equal women to men committee. The chairwoman of the cooperative is Mandu Tapa who has been extraordinary in helping us form the Takure/Bimire branch of the cooperative. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has been a part of forming the cooperative. None of this would be possible without the support of volunteers and donors from around the world. To learn more about our More Than a Tree campaign and supporting the farmers of our community click HERE. Please consider donating to help us continue this project, and for every $1 donated one tree is planted!! DONATE NOW!