Working Capital for Community Needs
(WCCN) provides access to micro-loans for small-scale entrepreneurs and farmers in Latin America—a group often denied services by traditional banks. They also have connected a Wisconsin business with a Latin American supplier.
WCCN was working with the Fundación Entre Mujeres, or La FEM, a nonprofit coffee producer in Nicaragua committed to social and economic development of rural women. (At left is Juana, with La Fem.)
“This group is different from most of the groups we work with,” said Carlos Arenas, Executive Director of WCCN. “La FEM is more than a co-op trying to help people make a decent wage, as important as that is. It’s a group also dedicated to women’s empowerment and education.”
Back home, the WCCN staff mentioned the La FEM coffee cooperative to Madison-based Just Coffee. “The La FEM producers were ready to sell their coffee, and Just Coffee was willing to buy,” said Carlos. “It worked out for everyone involved.”
You can find La FEM coffee wherever Just Coffee is sold.
