Coffee cherries, ready to be processed and offered to consumers, represent the best hope a typical Haitian coffee farmer holds for the future.

In that future, a farmer's family can break the stranglehold of poverty and violence that has gripped Haiti for more than 200 years. The coffee plants themselves, shade-grown under the cover of thick forest, help protect and restore the country's eroded lands and polluted rivers.

Just Haiti works with an association of subsistence Haitian coffee growers and their families in Baradères, Haiti, to assist them in bringing high-quality, organic, shade-grown coffee to North American consumers.

Through our efforts, the Haitian farmers not only receive a fair, sustainable price for their harvest. They will also manage coffee processing, roasting, packaging, sales and shipping.

This means they will reap the profit of their coffee's full market value.

By contrast, most “fair trade” coffee is roasted and packaged by middleman organizations. Their profits significantly exceed those of the growers.

Thanks to donations from many supporters, Just Haiti has provided the Baraderes growers' association with the first part of a zero-interest business loan they will repay over 5 years.

With the loan funds, the association in summer 2009 purchased its first depulping machines and began building two large sites for processing and drying the harvested beans.

Other investments will be needed to expand the business. And as the association begins repaying the loan, Just Haiti will use the money to make similar loans to other small business projects in Haiti.

To donate to Just Haiti, click here. Your contribution is fully tax deductible. The Internal Revenue Service has determined that Just Haiti is a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3).

Just Haiti works to alleviate poverty, hunger, violence, illiteracy and disease in Haiti by fostering small-business development, education programs, employment opportunity, infrastructure improvement and environmental quality. Just Haiti is a Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

Copyright 2007-2010 Just Haiti, Inc.