LWR Farmers Market Coffee is coffee direct from farmer to you. We are pleased to announce that your coffee now includes beans grown by farmers from the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda! For each delicious bag of coffee you purchase, farmers get a strong, up-front price for their beans, and share in the profits from the sale of the coffee. Hit the button below to go to the LWR Farmers Market Coffee website to browse and shop.
Wadamba Dison and Nafuna Oliver were childhood sweethearts. They married young and experienced loss early into their marriage. “Losing our first child was one of the hardest things we have been through,” says Wadamba.
But the experience left an impression on the couple, who say they see far too many girls marrying and having children in their coffee-farming community, high up on Mt. Elgon in Uganda.
Wadamba Dison coaches a student at the school he and his family host on their coffee farm in Mt. Elgon, Uganda. (Photo: Brad LaBriola for Lutheran World Relief)
The couple thought if children could stay in school longer, they could begin to envision a different kind of future for themselves. But the nearest school was a great distance away, and the route wasn’t always safe.
After talking with others in the community, Wadamba and Nafuna felt called to start a school on their own property. Now their farm welcomes about 250 students each day, and it has become a ministry you can support just by enjoying your morning coffee.
“Education is light,” Wadamba says. “We put this up in our school because it is what we believe.”
Nafuna Oliver shows off coffee from their trees. Their coffee crop supports their family and their school, which teaches 250 students. (Photo: Brad LaBriola for Lutheran World Relief)
Coffee makes it all possible
The couple has been growing coffee on their 4-acre farm since 1988. In that time they had six children ranging in age from 22 to their youngest, a girl named Confidence. As her parents speak, she playfully peaks around a corner and scurries off giggling when she’s discovered.
Nafuna and Wadamba say coffee is the only source of income for their household and the school. But things haven’t been easy lately. They’ve been dealing with a fungal coffee tree disease that turns the branches of their trees brown and kills the cherries that contain coffee beans. The loss of even one tree is painful for small-scale coffee farmers because coffee trees can take three to five years to produce cherries they can sell.
But because they earn a strong up-front price for their beans by growing for LWR Farmers Market Coffee, they have been able to take steps to treat their trees organically to continue producing the high-quality coffee you love.
Growing the future
Nafuna tells us a 15 year-old student, Mudulla Marian, is the school’s best student. She’s quiet with a shy smile.
Her parents are also coffee farmers. Sometimes they allow her to pick some coffee to sell so she can have money for herself. She says it’s important to her parents that she get an education and not become pregnant too young.
And Mudulla has big dreams! She wants to study to become a doctor when she’s older and live in Kampala. This revelation makes Nafuna smile.
Mudulla Marian, 15, wants to be a doctor when she gets older. It is important to her family that she get an education. (Photo: Brad LaBriola for Lutheran World Relief)
Education is light. It is also the ministry Wadamba and Nafuna bring to their community, to help children realize better futures. With your purchases of LWR Farmers Market Coffee, you become a part of that ministry. For each bag of delicious coffee you buy, Wadamba, Nafuna and many other farmers get a strong up-front price for their beans and share in the profits from the sale of the coffee.
Wadamba says he has only one wish for those who purchase his family’s coffee – the coffee that supports his family, his school and his passion for educating children. “Please…enjoy our coffee!”
