For many rural Nicaraguans, the harvest is an extremely vital time of the year. By traveling to nearby farms to pick coffee during the harvest, families can make extra money to cover additional expenses. The harvest coincides with the months children are not in school, so many parents must either leave their young children at home—putting them in charge of even younger children—or take their kids with them to coffee farms even if those farms do not have adequate conditions. In December 2010, NGO Planting Hope, a US-based non-profit organization, launched a Coffee Camps initiative in response to this problem. Coffee Camps provides families with free daycare, education, and recreational activities for children of migrant coffee laborers.
Our Role
The Chain Collaborative is developing a monitoring and evaluation project to help create an adapted, more self-sustaining model of Coffee Camps. We are fostering increased participation and commitment from the beneficiaries of the program as well as support from local cooperatives. The collaboration will result in an updated Coffee Camps start-up manual to be published in both English and Spanish in order to enable the program to be replicated in other communities and countries with similar needs.