For several years now, the Lavazza Foundation, together with International Coffee Partners, has backed several projects in Uganda in support of local farmers and coffee producers.
In light of this, it founded the Ujana Coffee Project together with the NGO Sawa World. This project gives the younger generation in Uganda access to resources at a local level and provides them with an opportunity for change.
This project offers a solution to diversify and increase the income of the youth from smallholder coffee farms. The scope of the “Ujana” project is to engage them and offer them broad-based access to simple local innovations. The idea for this project came from Daphne Nederhorst, founder of Sawa World and one of the protagonists of the 2018 Lavazza Calendar "2030: What are you doing?"
During the first phase of the project, seven young people between the ages of 15 and 35 from five different departments were chosen to start a small business. The project required all seven people to propose their own business idea, which has been launched thanks to initial economic support and specific training. All seven people will be provided with documentation on the proposed idea, including a short learning video and a didactic manual with simple illustrations that explain it step by step. The videos and manuals provided served as self-study tools for other young participants who are part of the “local solution hubs” in the beneficiary communities. In addition to hands-on training sessions, they received training in marketing and business management. Dialogue forums were also held, in which new ideas, successes, and challenges can be exchanged among the participants. It was expected that the "hubs" would be able to accommodate between 10,000 and 30,000 young people.
To share the real impact of the project and its potential, a day of workshops will be held where young beneficiaries will share their experiences with the hope to inspire other young people who are victims of extreme poverty to make a change.
