Indígenas de la Sierra Madre de MotozInternationala, Mexico
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Fair Trade enables us to feed our children better and give them an education.
--- Máximo Pérez Mejía, ISMAM Member In 1985, Mayan farmers from more than 100 rural communities in the diocese of Sierra Madre de Chiapas came together to form the cooperative Indigenas de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla, or ISMAM. Theirs was an incredible effort to fight against the grinding poverty and exploitation threatening their families. They worked together to address their common needs for technical assistance, processing equipment and direct market access.
ISMAM has been Fair Trade Certified by Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) since 1989. Today, approximately 8,000 family members benefit from the organization’s accomplishments.
Fair Trade premiums have enabled ISMAM to establish various social and productive programs.
Infrastructure and Productive Capacity:
ISMAM has invested over 565,000 pesos in building and acquiring facilities for the cooperative. Funds have been used to purchase local meeting spaces in over 15 zones of operation, to construct a bodega and two offices and to refurbish existing meeting spaces. The cooperative also used premium funds to develop a coffee plant nursery to grow new coffee trees.
Education:
The cooperative is able to provide scholarships for food and housing for farmers’ children that are pursuing college degrees.
Environment:
Seventy-six trained cooperative members carried out day-to-day training of members in organic practices, which led to 100 percent organic certification for the ISMAM members’ 24,000 acres of land. Agronomists have assisted members in planting fruit trees as shade for their coffee plants. The citrus fruits are often sold in local markets for supplemental family income.
Credit Program:
The cooperative is able to provide a guaranteed price before the coffee is harvested, thereby reducing the pre-harvest anxiety that is a fact of life for most small-scale farmers.
Cultural Sustainability:
Higher incomes for farmers allow families to stay together, thereby helping preserve indigenous culture and local traditions.
Women's Programs:
The women of ISMAM have cultivated coffee, ornamental palm trees, cinnamon and pepper for local sale. |
Fair Trade Coffee 
