A coffee that connects local communities worldwide
Behind it is a story of a vision for improving communities and developing leadership.
Organic Coffee that connects local communities worldwide
Jabulani beans are imported as a result of a partnership between Owens Coffee and Jabo Butera, Managing Director of the Diversity Business Incubator (DBI) in Plymouth, and through a direct relationship with the Twongerakawa Coko Cooperative in Rwanda.
The DBI is a business hub for minority ethnicity entrepreneurs in Plymouth (UK) and has been heavily involved in the regeneration of the City’s Union Street area for families and community.
Husband-and-wife duo Jabo Butera and Liliane Uwimana of DBI felt a need to raise awareness of the impact and consequences surrounding the Rwandan genocide since 1994. By bringing people together through Jabulnai coffee sustainably supports local communities worldwide, in their Motherland Rwanda and now their Homeland in Plymouth Devon. The partnership with local roastery Owens Coffee in Ivybridge enables a union based on the same community values and sustainability ethos. One that strives for positive change and believes in the power of humanity.
Owens provides the coffee for the Jabulani food court cafe, which is where this partnership began.
Jabo discovered Owens Coffee in the process of planning the Jabulani food court. The Roastery fitted the concept well. Not only is the facility just 15 minutes from Plymouth, Jabo liked that the Roastery is family run, has a small, welcoming, predominantly female team, and that Owens is committed to sustainability.
Organic farming methods are important to the creators of the food court who want to ensure that we protect the earth from which our crops are grown. Providing a locally roasted, organic coffee for its customers was the perfect choice for the food court.
In 2019, having agreed to Owens supplying the coffee for the Jabulani food court, a seed of an idea began to grow.
Jabo and Owens Coffee began to explore the potential of a joint coffee initiative and the partnership has since developed into something bigger.
Vision for a knowledge-exchange platform between the UK and Rwanda
Rwandan society is matriarchal, and the mostly female workforce of cooperatives like the Twongerakawa Coko Cooperative are seen as respected leaders in their communities. Supporting them supports these wider communities.
Jabo Butera shared his vision with Owens to create a knowledge-exchange platform for the people of Rwanda and the people of the UK. The goal is to discover values and benefits behind the differences in the ways that communities operate and exist in each. Both countries can learn and benefit from one another.
Owens Coffee supports this vision through the coffee beans for Jabulani. In addition to the normal Fairtrade price and the Fairtrade premium, a share of profits from our Jabulani coffee will contribute towards projects supporting communities at both ends of the coffee production line.
