This December, spend your vacation harvesting social justice! Participate in a transformative international travel experience. Global Exchange is sponsoring several highly motivated individuals to travel to Nicaragua this harvest season and work with a Fair Trade coffee cooperative (CECOCAFEN). Fair Harvesters will live with a cooperative member family and work alongside the farmers to harvest coffee. You will learn by participating in the daily lives of small-scale farming families and begin to understand the meaning of Fair Trade producers. This is a unique opportunity to experience the other side of the struggle for social and economic justice. Fair Harvest is not intended to be a tour or tourist visit, but rather to be a lived experience that will motivate participants to be committed activists upon their return.
Qualifications: Participants must be capable, self-reliant individuals with at least basic Spanish language ability. You also must be dedicated to working on a Fair Trade campaign in your community when you return. This may include talking to the media, giving presentations, writing articles, asking your local stores to offer Fair Trade products, etc.
WHY FAIR TRADE? Millions of coffee farmers around the world are facing poverty and starvation because global coffee prices have plummeted to all-time lows in recent years. This worldwide crisis is causing problems such as malnutrition and loss of family farms in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It has even led to increased drug cultivation in Colombia and Peru. Fortunately there is an alternative — Fair Trade Certified coffee. Fair Trade guarantees farmers a fair price for their harvest. Fair Trade means community development, education, health, and environmental stewardship for coffee farmers around the world. For more information, check out our Fair Trade campaign.
Please click here for information about our guides on Nicaragua tours.
Program Highlights:
- TYPICAL DAY'S SCHEDULE: Wake up at 5AM to pick coffee. Stop picking at 10AM, eat something, and process the morning's harvest—depulp, ferment, wash, dry, and sort, working with the family. Eat lunch, and then help the family with other work or do other activities in the community. Then relax. Eat dinner around 6PM or 7PM, and go to bed shortly after sunset.
- OTHER ACTIVITIES: Visit local nature sites and observe wildlife (waterfalls, forests, birds, sloths, orchids, etc.).
- Learn to cook typical foods.
- Visit various parts of the community, such as the barrios of hacienda laborers.
- Learn what life is like for non-fair trade coffee farmers and laborers.
- Learn about the history of cooperatives and how they are organized.
- All highlights and activities subject to change, as conditions permit. Please contact Program Coordinator for sample itinerary and details.
Cost: $950
Price Includes:
- Double-room accommodations; on-ground transportation including airport pick-up and drop-off; Global Exchange bilingual trip leader; preparatory reading and orientation materials; admission and fees to all program activities; two meals a day (breakfast and dinner).
- NOT INCLUDED: airfare, airport departure taxes, tips, lunches, and personal expenses.
- Please note: participants will arrive and depart from the Managua airport. All Global Exchange participants who arrive and depart on scheduled trip dates are guaranteed airport transportation. Please notify program coordinator with special travel arrangements.
How to Register:
To secure your space on this trip, please submit your registration form and a deposit of $200 two months before departure. A late fee of $50 will be applied for late registration. Deposits are non-refundable but transferable for up to one year toward the cost of another tour. Payments by check, Mastercard or Visa are welcome.This trip will be as diverse as possible in terms of race, age and life experiences. We strongly urge people of color to apply. In some cases, a limited number of partial scholarships are available for low-income applicants.
Make your reservation online now!
Contact Corina with any questions about this trip,
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