Karim Birimumaso

Short Summary

 I'm Karim Birimumaso, founder of Farmers Friends.

I was raised by my grandparents, they were farmers specialised in coffee growing, processing and exporting- mainly to other neighbouring counties. This gave me good knowledge about coffee and farming at large. As I grew up in my country I saw woman's struggling every day. Because of poverty, some parents see their daughter as a source of wealth as she can fetch bride price from her husband’s family when she marries.

Some parents in Uganda feel that educating a girl is a waste of time and resources when she will ultimately marry and gain lifelong security. So majority of woman's around me where speechless mothers and farmers.

I later moved to Iceland in year 2010, here I saw the different way of treating woman's, here woman's are treated equal to man. And I could not stop thinking... How can I help and empower woman's in my community?

Coffee is the leading cash crop in Uganda. Coffee production is male dominated yet Women play a central role in the production of coffee in the Uganda, both at the initial level of land preparation, planting, to harvesting and within the value chain process.

Women doing over 70% of all labour needed in this production, are benefitting very little, compared to men. Women in Uganda have the smallest benefit share at all stages in the process. 

The main goal of Farmer’s Friends is to empower and teach women and their children how to sustain themselves within the coffee production in Uganda.

 Farmer’s friend is looking for funds to set up a coffee processing plant where women will be employed and trained on coffee production skills and other life skills at large. This is project is for women and therefore it will be led by women. The coffee will be produced and processed in Uganda and later shipped to Europe for consumption. This is possible based on the technical skills and personal network that I have made in Iceland and Europe at large.

We appreciate your support and contribution towards the success of this project.

Please join me to save our sisters and mothers from poverty.

Empower women in the coffee production in Uganda.

Our aim is to empower women in rural areas of the country, using coffee production as a tool.

This campaign could help many people out of poverty, e.g single mothers, woman's without education, farmers, disabled..etc

Sustainability plan

The project activities running for the first 3 years will be financed through  donations and contributions from partners and volunteers for Farmers’ friends. It is projected that in the second year of operation, the organisation will have started generating revenue from coffee sales; this revenue will sustain the program activities after the three years of funding. By the end of the project, an association of coffee farmers shall be in place through which farmer’s trainings shall be organised and conducted. Lead farmers shall be identified, trained and equipped with necessary skills to manage and continue with operations beyond the project lifecycle. An information desk will be in place at the association’s offices to offer information about the market’s needs, prices. The project shall ensure training manuals are available in the hands of the Association leaders for backstopping, reference and continuous training.

Please check our website for more:

farmersfriends.is

Below our bank information:

ID-NUMBER (KENNITALA)

661118-0830

BANK INFORMATION

Within Iceland:

0537 – 26 – 661118

International payments:

IBAN: IS43053726661118

SWIFT: GLITISRE

BANK´S NAME: ISLANDSBANKI