Planting Peace & Nonviolence With Coffee: An Update From Bridget Nsimenta, Changemaker Youth Grant Recipient
4th April, 2022
Bridget Nsimenta is one of our nine Changemaker Youth Grant Awardees in 2022. These small grants are designed to empower creative changemakers to make a difference in their local communities. Given to youth ages 12-24, the project should put forward a creative solution that addresses violence. (Find out more here.) Ms. Nsimenta’s proposal put forward the idea that coffee trees could help Ugandan families break the cycle of domestic abuse by alleviating poverty (which is also a form of violence).
Here is Ms. Nsimenta’s first report on the community meetings, popular education, and gatherings with her team of changemakers. Quite literally, the seeds of peace and active nonviolence have been planted!
A Report Showing Our Progress in Addressing Domestic Violence Through Coffee Planting from Bridget Nsimenta
#EndPovertyNow
On 20th March, 2022, we started our project, Coffee Planting to Solve Domestic Violence from the roots. We held a meeting with the community members of Kirugu village, Rubirizi District, Uganda. We met with the youth and different households, teaching them the factors that cause violence in homes and how to solve these conflicts to make these families nonviolent and peaceful. Poverty being the major cause of violence, we engaged the community in the essence of planting coffee, a long-term project that solves poverty, and caters for all necessities (school fees, food, health facilities and all other necessities) which is a major source of peace in families.
We grouped the participants into two groups, Group A and Group B. After the meeting with the community, we proceeded to clear the land and set up our seed bed as our first step in the process of starting up a nursery bed. That's our progress currently and we shall be sending more of our works later.
