OUR SOCIAL PROGRAMS
Alongside supporting our farmers to produce the highest quality coffee and ensuring women are able to make their own decisions, Rebuild Women's Hope runs a number of social programs to further our objective of empowering women coffee farmers on Idjwi Island.
MATERNITY AND PAEDIATRIC MEDICAL CENTER
One of the greatest needs in the community is healthcare provision, which until very recently was almost entirely lacking. In particular there were no facilities to care for women experiencing problems in pregnancy and childbirth. This led to the death of several of Rebuild Womens’ Hope members each year. In 2019, we conceived a vision to build a Maternity and Paediatric Medical Center to tackle this problem.
We shared this vision with our roaster partner Mozzo Coffee, who very quickly committed to provide the core funding through their C2C fund. The medical center was built in 2020, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, and opened to great celebrations in December that year. By July 2021, 354 babies had been born, and the medical centre had treated 2,345 inpatients and 876 outpatients.
We next plan to build a small operating theatre to enable caesarean sections to be undertaken.
WOMEN'S CENTER
The Women’s Center was built and equipped in 2020, with funding from the French Republic Human Rights Prize awarded to Marceline in 2019 by the French Government.
The activities at the Women’s Center include courses in tailoring and sewing, bakery, soap-making and business skills training in order to help women to make an income to support their families outside of the coffee season. In addition, the center offers legal advice to help women defend their rights.
PROVISION OF WATER
Since 2017, Rebuild Women's Hope has used the profits from coffee sales to construct seven water pumps near its washing stations and the surrounding villages to provide clean water to those living in the surrounding area. Prior to this, the population was dependent on using the lake to obtain water for washing, cooking and their other needs, resulting in numerous deaths due to water borne diseases and high rates of genital infections. Over 2,500 women are able to benefit from the clean water provided.