What is IHWI: The Invisible Hands Women's Initiative is a registered community based organization (CBO) based in Mbale, Uganda. It is made up of nearly 100 women who directly impact the quality of coffee coming out of the region, but who get no recognition for their efforts (the invisible hands in the supply chain!) IHWI is a structured way that Dream Coffee piloted as a means of being able to give back. DC and it's partners can give donations or a share of their profits made from final coffee sales in order to invest back into the community we depend on for fine coffee.
How does IHWI use the money: IHWI uses the money as seed capital to improve their standard of living. Keeping the money within the group, the women are able to borrow money to grow businesses, send kids to school, and reinvest in the group to increase their collective seed capital.
How did IHWI start: When Dream Coffee started its coffee journey, we were appalled to realize how little the women in the supply chain made. In order to get a specialty grade of coffee, each bean must be hand picked by a group of women to ensure it is perfect to roast. It is back breaking work that earned them less than $3 a day. We wanted to see if there was a way they could earn more for their work - by getting a cut once the coffee is sold.
What's next for IHWI: Since this was a pilot program, we are gathering everything we learned from it and seeing if we can expand it to other communities we source our coffee from.