CREATING IMPACT BEYOND COFFEE BUYING
Determined to create meaningful impact for the coffee community on Idjwi Island (Eastern DRC) suppliers of our superb speciality Arabica beans. We worked closely with the coffee cooperative and women’s rights campaigners Rebuild Women’s Hope (RWH).
With no running water, no electricity and no roads, the people of Idjwi had to either walk 50km or motorbike on bumpy tracks to get medical help, women often giving birth in a field or in canoes on the shore, with only the help of untrained locals.
When they needed urgent medical attention, pregnant women risked crossing Lake Kivu to get to Rwanda, many tragically drowning - 17 women drowned in 2017/18.
Mozzo’s founder Grant visited Idjwi Island in October 2019 to discuss the plight of the local community with RWH’s founder Marceline Budza, who had identified the urgent need for a maternity and paediatric clinic on the south of the island. Grant agreed to commit Mozzo’s C2C Fund™ contributions for 2020 and 2021 for the build of the island’s first ever clinic and cover the first 3 month’s operating costs.
BUILDING THE CLINIC BEGINS
Locals began the build in January 2020, many from the coffee growing community, and as part of the project, established the island’s first safe running water supply.
One month later, Grant and Mozzo’s Director of Brand Kim went back to witness build progress first-hand. Staggeringly, elevations for the women’s ward, delivery room, post-natal ward, pharmacy, and lab as well as the men’s ward (the clinic also treats diseases in the community) were well underway.
The trip had a huge impact on the team: “We could see that the combined impacts of climate change and Covid-19 posed the biggest threat to those communities the global coffee industry relied on. We came home with renewed purpose, a greater compassion for others and a deeper sense of generosity than ever before.”
TRIUMPH DURING ADVERSITY
Despite the challenges of 2020 - including a devastating Covid-related loss in revenue - Mozzo still offered to fund the clinic operating costs for a full year in 2021 (not 3 months originally agreed) to help the coffee community while they dealt with the ravaging impact of the global pandemic.
The clinic was completed within 11 months and by then it was safe to return. We couldn’t wait to stand alongside Marcelline and the local farming community to witness ribbon-cutting on opening day; 15th December 2020. 11 days later they welcomed Noella, the first baby born in the comfort of a clinic bed.
The C2C Fund™ had paid for the build and first year’s operation.
2022 Update
The RWH Coffee Cooperative now self-sufficiently funds the clinic, and their 14 staff treats on average 400 women, children and men every month for vital medical conditions including childbirth, postnatal care, infection control, cancer treatment, disease, malnutrition and injury.
Mighty thanks to our Mozzo community, every coffee you’ve bought, every cup you’ve enjoyed helps us have a profoundly positive impact on our communities.
Truly uplifting for all.
Notes:
Clinic build included: main clinic building, separate bathroom block with 2 showers and 2 toilets/latrines, outdoor covered seating area, paved walkways between buildings and separate sleeping block for medics, plus wages for 14 staff: 2 nurses, 2 midwives, 1 doctor, 1 lab technician, 4 security guards, 1 pharmacist, 1 receptionist/clinic manager, 2 cleaners. Clinic equipment included: 20 hospital beds, 1 gynaecological bed, 1 examination bed, stretcher, ultrasound scanner, ultrasound monitor, foetal dopplers, otoscope (ears), laryngoscope (throat),
glucometer, blood pressure monitor, ventouse, forceps, binocular microscope, oxygen concentrator, nebuliser, starter medication, pressure bandaging, height chart, measuring tape, revolving medical chair. Also includes transportation by boat to Idjwi Island, installation, maintenance, and training staff in equipment use.
