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We recently got the following email from Jaimee, a new Cauzal Coffee follower:  

"Woke up this morning groggy, but excited to try my first cup of Cauzal coffee and I was not disappointed ... what a wonderful start to my day! Thank you for providing excellent service (my coffee arrived exactly as the confirmation email stated) and for an absolutely SUPERB product. I'm greatly encouraged that 25% (WOW!) of the proceeds are benefitting people that need it most. Thank you for your ministry and I will be sure to share it with many others! Blessings as you continue in your endeavor to make a difference in the world!"

Please let us know what you think about Cauzal Coffee, and we'll post your comments here on our blog. 

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At Cauzal Coffee we really enjoy learning about and supporting many cauzes, in addition to the six main Cauzes that we normally feature. Individuals can set up a "MyCauze" to support a one-time service event that they're personally involved in. Nonprofit organizations can set up an "OurCauze" to supplement their fundraising, whether for a one-time project or to establish an ongoing income stream.

The Uganda Tree of Life MyCauze is being established by a team going to Uganda this June to work with Tree of Life Ministries -- a grass-roots effort in Uganda. You can read more about their plans by visiting their blog about the trip. 

 

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You can learn more about the West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) of World Vision -- which works in Ghana, Mali, and Niger -- by reading this progress report. As you'll read in the report, good water projects are as much about educating and mobilizing the local community as they are about drilling wells and digging latrines.

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A local photographer in Sisters, Oregon has designed and published a wonderful photo book titled “Thirst.” The book provides a unique glimpse into life in a remote village in Uganda -- a village that struggles with unclean water and thirst.

David Uttley introduces his book by saying, "Water is life. This truth has never been more poignant than in rural Africa. Clean water lies at the core of many challenges facing the African people. Caught in a horrible cycle of sickness and disease, contaminated water destroys the strength and development of African families and communities. This leads to extreme poverty, lack of education, and greater illnesses."

You will be moved by this book, and I encourage you to take a look at some sample pages from the book by clicking here.

  

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I read a recent interview of Gary Haugen (President of IJM), and I was impacted by his following statements:

"We are trying to equip and empower Christians to think about injustice with the eyes and hope of Christ, to be able to look at it with courage. What I see is Christians preoccupied and discouraged by their own fears. ... They are afraid of what's going to happen to their kids, what's going to happen in the culture, what's going to happen to their material situation. ... But Christians are not supposed to live in fear. What people seem to find in International Justice Mission, in the stories of what my colleagues are actually doing in the field, is a picture of Christian faith that is liberated from fear. They think, As a follower of Jesus, maybe I can be liberated both from fears and from the triviality of some of those fears. Yes, there is a need for Christians to be engaged with courage in the world, because people are hurting and need our help. But there is just as much a need for Christians who have resources and capacities to be liberated from a prison of small fears and triviality. For a lot of American Christians, the beginning is to realize that so much of the limitations of my Christian life are really coming out of my fear."

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Here is a great video that tells the story of lives lifted out of poverty through microfinance:

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Cauzal Coffee partners with World Relief in our Poverty Cauze. World Relief is working to empower entrepreneurs, mostly women, in developing countries with small loans, typically around $100. World Relief first became involved in microfinance in the mid-1970’s as a means to help provide an income for war widows in Bangladesh. Realizing that disaster relief only met the immediate needs of the Bangladeshi women, World Relief worked to hasten the development of the community by helping poor entrepreneurs to develop their own economic activity. 

World Relief microfinance is concerned with delivering the “Triple Bottom Line”: financial (covering all operating costs with income generated), social (ensuring people’s lives are better through improved health, sanitation, nutrition, education), and spiritual (lives are transformed and God’s Kingdom grows and deepens). Since early on, World Relief has become known for starting and growing microfinance programs in very challenging, conflict or post-conflict environments. Although many microfinance practitioners avoid challenging conflict-prone economies, World Relief has seen the potential to accelerate recovery in such settings and has developed an expertise in doing so. 
 

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In my years working in Africa, I helped to start and grow three microfinance institutions -- in Rwanda, Burundi, and DR Congo. Microfinance is an important and effective tool to address poverty. Here is a technical definition of microfinance, taken from the Microfinance Gateway:

“Microfinance” is often defined as financial services for poor and low-income clients. In practice, the term is often used more narrowly to refer to loans and other services from providers that identify themselves as “microfinance institutions” (MFIs). These institutions commonly tend to use new methods developed over the last 30 years to deliver very small loans to unsalaried borrowers, taking little or no collateral. These methods include group lending and liability, pre-loan savings requirements, gradually increasing loan sizes, and an implicit guarantee of ready access to future loans if present loans are repaid fully and promptly. More broadly, microfinance refers to a movement that envisions a world in which low-income households have permanent access to a range of high quality financial services to finance their income-producing activities, build assets, stabilize consumption, and protect against risks. These services are not limited to credit, but include savings, insurance, and money transfers.

Many people first heard about microfinance in 2005, when Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in establishing the microcredit movement across the developing world. 

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When I lived in Rwanda I had the wonderful pleasure of receiving many guests who came to learn and advocate for the plight of the poor and suffering around the world. One such guest from Connecticut, AJ Picard, came to paint various scenes from Rwanda; using the paintings to create awareness and to raise funds for the work that we were doing. One of his incredible pieces of art, titled "Empty Cup", portrays the face of poverty, as shown through the face of a barefoot "Rwandan princess."

This is what AJ says about "Empty Cup":  This was the first painting I created upon returning from the breathtaking country of Rwanda. I was still reeling from a powerful first encounter with the third world. 'Empty Cup' is my portrayal of a little Rwandan princess walking barefoot through the dirt clay streets of Kigali, one of the millions of children living there in total poverty. Her tattered dress is a poignant symbol of the harsh disparity that exists between beauty and brokenness. 

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