For the past two years Glen Lyon Coffee Roasters has been working with the purpose driven business and fellow B Corp Agri Evolve to source coffee from the remote Rwenzori region of Uganda. Right from the start we have been impressed by Agri Evolve's commitment to work directly with Ugandan farmers to improve yields, increase incomes and raise the quality of life for more than 15,000 farmers, together with their families and communities.
To help support these coffee producers in Rwenzori, Glen Lyon Coffee is fundraising to help Agri Evolve buy a network of taps for the Katanda Water Project. The project was initiated by a group of farmers from the Katanda community who re-invested some of the additional money they made from selling their coffee on the international market into supplying fresh water to their communities.
They initially installed a water pipe to bring water from a spring high in the hills to their community, saving them the need to walk several miles every day to collect water from streams. To achieve this, the farmers and local community had to dig the trench for the pipe by hand across difficult and steep terrain. They then secured and protected the spring by making a simple collecting tank at the head of the steam which diverts water into the pipe that leads down the hill to their village.
This year they have taken the project a stage further by constructing a second tank to collect the water from the hill. A local plumber and builder were hired to carry out the work with community members providing the manpower. Stones, reinforcing rods and cement were carried to the site and used to build the structure. Now completed, a single tap has been installed next to the tank.
These farmers need help with the final phase of their project, to deliver fresh water to a wider network of surrounding communities. Although the tank has been built in the central ‘trading centre’, many families live some distance from this hub. So the plan is to install a network of smaller pipes from the tank that run to the outlying communities.
Glen Lyon Coffee has offered to fundraise to extend fresh water into these more far flung communities. £100 will cover the cost of running a pipe from the main tank to a new location and for the construction of a tap-stand and tap. We want to raise the money for 12 of these installations to help support isolated farming communities in Uganda’s Rwenzori mountains.
To help support this project, Glen Lyon Coffee has committed to match every £1 raised from donations, so we only need to raise £600 to reach our £1,200 target!
