In July 2016, Coopade created the Kirindera Women’s Peace Coffee Section with the objective of allowing women coffee farmers to control and develop their own coffee production through the whole chain from production through to export. As the women in DR Congo already do the largest proportion of the work the coffee farms, including harvest, this has meant focusing on the delivery of the coffee cherries to the washing station, and then managing the actual washing and drying of the parchment coffee.
The Women’s Section have built a total of seven of the fifteen Coopade washing stations to date, of which Kirindera was one of the first. These washing stations are entirely managed by the Women’s Section. The Kirindera women are employing young people and providing them with an alternative to joining the armed groups that are destabilising the region.
