2018 Much Needed Cooperative Store is Operating.
The Foundation has a Cooperative Store where the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta can fairly exchange their products (coffee, chocolate, raw sugar, etc) for basic tools – machetes, picks, shovels, files, cotton yarn, and other supplies. For many years the Kogi have suffered the exploitation and pillaging of their possessions and traditions by homesteaders and merchants who keep them forever indebted and/or pay them with alcohol and inebriate them, thereby causing the deterioration of their society, their culture.
We plan to expand the Coop project with a physical location, a roaster for coffee and chocolate, and a space to package these organic products for direct trade in local, national, and international markets.
The Foundation has a Cooperative Store where the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta can fairly exchange their products (coffee, chocolate, raw sugar, etc) for basic tools – machetes, picks, shovels, files, cotton yarn, and other supplies. For many years the Kogi have suffered the exploitation and pillaging of their possessions and traditions by homesteaders and merchants who keep them forever indebted and/or pay them with alcohol and inebriate them, thereby causing the deterioration of their society, their culture.
We plan to expand the Coop project with a physical location, a roaster for coffee and chocolate, and a space to package these organic products for direct trade in local, national, and international markets.