RWANDA GAKENKE COFFEE

The Hingakawa Women’s Coffee Cooperative is one half of the Abankundakawa-Rushashi Cooperative which was formed in 2004 to become the first women’s farmer association of its kind in Rwanda.  Abankundakawa means “People Who Love Coffee” in the native Kinyarwanda language.  It is 100% women owned.  Hingakawa means “Lets Grow Coffee” in the native Kinyarwanda and represents a group of women within the larger Abankundakawa cooperative.  Both cooperatives are fully owned by women and located in the northern mountainous regions of the Gakenke district. 

The coffee represents the sacrifice and resolve by cooperative members to overcome simmering tribal differences that led to a civil war between the ethnic Hutu’s and Tutsi’s of Rwanda, many who lost their lives on the very same Rwandan hilltops.  The two cooperatives employ both Hutu and Tutsi women, and see their efforts as a way to fight against poverty rather than against each other with the hope of moving forward through cooperation and leadership.  The group receives a premium for its coffee which it reinvests in programs to benefit its members such as a variety of child development benefits etc.