Honduras: why women need to retake their place on the land

[ irishtimes.com/coffeevsgangs ]

Supporting and encouraging women to take a lead role in the coffee industry is one of the main goals of the Kenco Coffee Vs Gangs programme. In this interview we meet Maria, a 21-year-old Honduran who is a student on the Kenco course and who grew up in the region where the Kenco farm is situated.

She represents a voice in the country that she feels is rarely heard:  that of a young Honduran woman who is proud of where she comes from.

She’s critical of the media and its portrayal of women but also of its portrayal of the country overall. She believes that Honduras can carve out a more peaceful future and one which will allow her and her family to prosper.

She sees the development of the coffee industry as a big part of that and claims that the role of women can a key driver of change. Women need to reclaim their place on the land, she says, and aims to do that herself.

The business plan that she has been developing as part of the Kenco course is aimed at allowing her to develop a small coffee farm that she will manage and run. In normal circumstances this is a very ambitious idea for a young woman who doesn’t already have a foothold in the industry but the Kenco programme and the injection of start-up cash that it provides for their business plan makes this a real possibility.

[ irishtimes.com/coffeevsgangs ]