Coffee Farmers Hard Hit by Hurricane Stan

For coffee importers like Equal Exchange "Fair Trade" means having direct and long-term relationships with trading partners. Sadly, many of their Fair Trade coffee partners in Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala have been hard hit and need help.

In early October, Hurricane Stan dumped unprecedented rainfall on northern Central America and southern Mexico, leaving approximately one thousand dead, hundreds of thousands homeless, and causing billions of dollars of destruction. Furthermore:

• The entire country of El Salvador has been declared a national emergency.
• In southern Mexico, 464 counties were declared a state of emergency.
• In Guatemala, mudslides buried entire communities in the Lake Atitlan area.

In addition to buying the farmers' products at fair, minimum prices and providing producers with advance credit for crop production, Equal Exchange also tries to "accompany" these coffee-growing cooperatives in whatever successes and challenges they face. Sometimes this means promoting their success at a cupping competition. In this case, it means supporting coffee cooperatives whose members have been devastated by Hurricane Stan.

Equal Exchange has received personal letters from their trading partners in Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala asking for assistance of emergency food and medicine. A large part of this year's coffee harvest has been ruined, putting the livelihoods of farmers and their families in jeopardy. Additional funds will be needed for longer-term reconstruction efforts.

If you'd like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please send your donations to Grassroots International, 179 Boylston Street, 4th floor, Boston MA 02130 (please write HURRICANE STAN on your check's memo). Grassroots International is a non-profit organization working to advance political, economic and social rights and support development alternatives through grant making, education and advocacy. They have agreed to channel funds to Equal Exchange's affected partners free of all administrative charges.

Or you can place a secure donation on your charge card.

The following are just a few of many excerpts from the coffee cooperatives Equal Exchange partners with:

Sixto Bonilla, General Manager of CESMACH, in southern Chiapas: "In the Sierra, we are having a very hard time. There are mudslides and communication is impossible. We are organizing groups of assistance to try and send some basic goods and medicines that we've been managing to acquire. Despite this, there are many very remote communities that we have not yet been able to reach... If you know of any foundation or organization that could help us in any way to meet the basic necessities, clearly that would be welcome."

In a follow-up letter, Sixto wrote: "Practically all the roadways between the main cities and the communities are cut off. In the case of Jaltenango, there is no access because the bridges have fallen down. In the Sierra, it is even more complicated because in addition to the fallen bridges, it is impossible to get to any of the communities. Even the closest ones like Nueva Independencia, Nueva Colombia or Laguna del Cofre are now impossible to reach because the rivers are very full and the mudslides are tremendous. We have collected some basic goods (grains and beans mostly) that we will try to send as quickly as the rains stop and there is access again. Our biggest concern is for the communities that are further away and are in even steeper areas which tend to suffer landslides; these are the poorest communities and are not prepared to withstand this type of problem."

Equal Exchange has set up a page on their website with more information and a link to make a donation for relief work.