BOGOTA – As a result of a project led by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), the habitants of La Palma township, in Cundinamarca province, are now taking classes in the Rural Educational Institution Minipí de Quijano school (Institución Educativa Rural Minipí de Quijano).
The COSTA Coffee foundation and Complete Coffee of England, the Embassy of Japan, the Colombian Department for Social Prosperity (DPS), the FNC´s Departmental Coffee Growers Committee of Cundinamarca and La Palma’s local government participated in this project in which a total of US $1.07 million was invested.
The project was executed by the FNC through the Departmental Coffee Growers Committee of Cundinamarca during the past two years and will improve the social conditions of this rural coffee growing area by providing 500 children with equal access to relevant education that contributes to their personal development.
Among the school´s facilities are spacious classrooms, physics and chemistry laboratories, computer rooms, a school cafeteria, an early childhood lounge, a library, an auditorium and administrative areas.
The project includes other lines of action with different components such as young coffee growers, health and nutrition (home garden), rural family welfare as well as training of 12 school teachers.
Small coffee productive projects were developed to foster the knowledge of coffee that is transmitted from generation to generation and to ensure the continued existence of young coffee entrepreneurs in rural areas.
The objective of the “young coffee growers” component is to offer coffee growers a better income that will improve their quality of life.
The school´s health and nutrition topics includes two core activities. First, vaccination campaigns were carried out with the support of the city administration.
Additionally, a food security program was implemented, which intends to generate auto-consumption and savings for rural families through the training of students and instructors and the development of a school garden and thirty home gardens.
Source: FNC
