Rwandan coffee is in jeopardy

First, please educate yourself about the PEARL Project, and all that it has accomplished for Rwandan coffee producers, and for the coffee itself.

Now imagine that PEARL gets its funding cut due to USAID funding cuts. All that PEARL has achieved could be gone, with the project ending years before it was planned to.

We'll be doing a special podcast about this within the next few days. In the mean time, be prepared to mobilize and raise awareness... and to write to your representatives in Congress.

This is an issue that is just coming to light now, so helping awareness spread as soon as possible is key. This is something that CAN BE SAVED. It'll just take some work on all of our parts.

Stay tuned.

(photo is of Dan Clay of MSU and Tim Schilling of Texas A & M as they leave the Maraba Cooperative after a celebration honoring the PEARL contributions. Photo by Sue Nichols, University Relations, MSU.)

More reading:
- Main webpage from Michigan State University
- Reprint from Roast Magazine, March/April 2004
- The President of Rwanda visits a washing station
- MSU "The State News"
- From the current issue of Tea and Coffee
- The U.S. Mission to Rwanda
- CQI: "The Healing Effect of Coffee in Rwanda"
- Peter Giuliano: "Peter goes to Rwanda - March 2005"
- From Geoff Watts: "RWANDA MUSASA"