Oakland University Students- Changing Lives Through Coffee

http://startsomegood.com/Venture/cafe_de_kuna/Campaigns/Show/changing_lives_through_coffee

We are a student-led initiative desiring to help members of a Panamanian community leverage resources to grow and sustain a coffee business.

In August 2013, with the support of Oakland University and Global Business Brigades, a student-led international organization, sixteen undergraduate students had the opportunity to travel to the Wacuco Kuna community in the Darien Region of Panamá.

The week long volunteer trip allowed the students to lead multiple interactive business related workshops with the community’s savings and loan cooperative members. These sessions covered concepts such as marketing, accounting, strategic management, budgeting, and savings and loans. The students learned about the community member’s businesses, culture, history, their passions, desires and the unique international issues they face.

Throughout the week, multiple community members expressed the same passion, the same desire; coffee.

The members yearned to increase Robusta coffee production and yield in hopes to export the beans more efficiently and a group of Oakland University students thought they could help (Us!).

to increase the community’s coffee production and yield with the intent to export globally.

Once accepted into the program, we began the most exciting and unparalleled learning experience of our college years. It is because of our strong relationships with a wide variety of Panamanian individuals; including leaders in the village cooperative, Global Business Brigade staff, faculty at the University of Panamá, and many executives throughout the coffee industry, that we believe Café de Kuna will succeed.