Aegis Trust, a non-profit organisation that works to prevent genocide and mass atrocities, with a focus on education and research to promote peace, has supported tens of thousands of young people across the country through peace education to combat genocide and its ideology. For successful peace education, economic resilience is also essential. That’s why the Aegis Peace Fund has been established as a sister organisation to Aegis Trust, to use enterprise to grow strong communities. Good Human Coffee is one of their first projects with the aim of contributing to peace by sustaining the economic well-being of communities. According to James Smith, co-founder of Aegis Peace Fund, the purpose of Good Human Coffee, which is one of many fields in the agricultural sector, is to support Africa’s fragile communities to build resilience. Good Human Coffee is a social enterprise focused on delivering more than just an economic trade benefit to coffee farmers. “Having seen that coffee farmers have very little reward for their hard work, every time I visit a coffee shop in the UK, I am convinced there has to be a better way to bring good coffee to market. We don’t offer farmers payments above market price because that’s not sustainable. Instead we aim to improve the quality of coffee to provide a chance for farmers to earn more from their efforts.” The Managing Director of Good Human Coffee, Geoffrey Bungeri, noted that coffee requires all kinds of investments, for instance education about organic fertilisers, husbandry and to ensure quality control - from the time coffee is grown and when cherries are picked through the whole process until export. Good Human Coffee is also considering how best to help farmers manage the risk of climate change, when rainfall is becoming more erratic, which may include investing in irrigation and testing different coffee cultivars. Aegis Peace Fund seek opportunities to add value to agricultural products wherever possible and anticipates upgrading coffee quality, with hopes of producing organic coffee in three to five years by using organic manure. “Our market is mostly buyers who have their own small roasteries, which has helped to build our reputation. As we expand to bigger and better markets we look forward to working with more farmers and cooperatives. In addition to enhancing our coffee quality so that it can serve the specialty coffee market we also we will support farmers to develop additional income streams.” Smith said. The work transforms lives through a deeper understanding of the people within the supply chain, their challenges, what’s important to them, and supporting the wider community through the incredible peacebuilding and reconciliation work that Aegis Trust delivers. In Rwanda, the NGO works alongside the Shema Muyumbu Washing Station in the country’s Eastern Province. A visit was organised to the washing station as part of the UK-Rwanda Business Forum so that coffee buyers could experience the crop to cup process and see the impact of Good Human Coffee approach. Charles Shema commented that one of the NGO’s plans is to elevate the quality of farmers' coffee by using an incentive-develop-reward programme to provide them with an opportunity to access markets that fetch higher premiums, securing stable and growing international markets for the supply of wholesale and retail coffee products. Aegis Peace Fund looks forward to having a truly tangible and long-lasting impact in communities by supporting them to raise the quality and value of coffee grown through peacebuilding and other sustainable livelihood initiatives. The name ‘Good Human’ is derived from the Rwandan value, ‘Ubumuntu’, which means humanity. The coffee can be purchased at Kigali Genocide Memorial gift shop and café at Gisozi, Kigali International Airport, and online in the UK.
