Our C2C Fund is Mozzo’s way of ensuring every bag, cup and capsule delivers positive impact for our coffee farming communities. Just like our coffee farmers based in the beautiful, rural Idjwi Island, situated on one of the African Great Lakes, Lake Kivu, in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Idjwi Island produces some of the world’s best Arabica coffee, but for its population of 250,000, life is anything but easy. Around 16% of them are coffee farmers trying to make a living, often heading to Rwanda to get a better price for their beans, crossing Lake Kivu in handmade wooden boats, many drowning every year.
For the women of Idjwi, daily life poses threat after threat. DRC is renowned as one of the most dangerous and least empowered places for women in the world. They not only face the threat of physical and sexual violence, but 1 in 10 suffers serious (often fatal) complications in childbirth.
In 2019, through one of our Congolese sourcing partners, our founder Grant was introduced to Rebuild Women’s Hope (RWH) Coffee Cooperative, established by Marceline Budza to empower the women of DRC through financial education and independence – already producers of high-grade Arabica coffee on Idjwi Island.
“Building women’s hope is building the hope of the nation”
- Marceline Budza
In 2019 all coffee due for export by RWH was locked down in Goma, almost driving the cooperative out of business. With its future in doubt, Mozzo agreed to purchase 260 x 60kg sacks of their high-quality coffee, securing the short-term future of RWH. Using the coffee in 2020 throughout our core Mozzo blend collection of coffees as well as our single-origin series.
