A group of business students is hoping its new coffee business will help improve the health and well-being of people living in Bawa, a village in the West Province of Cameroon, Africa.
Students in the Quinnipiac chapter of Students in Free Enterprise have launched Café Cameroon, a social entrepreneurial venture aimed at creating a sustainable economy by providing the 400 residents of Bawa with the tools to help them export their high-grade coffee beans to the United States. The goal is to create enough profit to eventually build a much-needed health center in the Bawa community.
"This project has opened my eyes to the ability students have today to help people, not only in their communities but on a global scale," said Antoinette Maljevic, a senior and the project's leader. "The Bawa project has given us the opportunity to change people's lives and realize that a small group of college kids really can make a difference."
The 15 students involved in the project have been working in teams to handle logistics, accounting, sales and public relations for Café Cameroon. The students worked with one farm in Bawa to get its first shipment of coffee, which arrived in February. As the venture expands, the organizers expect to work with more farms in Bawa.
The venture, according to Rick Hirsch, director of the Family Business Center at Quinnipiac and SIFE adviser, was first developed in November 2007 to benefit the residents of Bawa, where no water or sanitation system exists.
"The nearest river serves as a common source of water for drinking, cooking, bathing and washing utensils," Hirsch said. "As is the case with many villages in Cameroon, Bawa is an endemic focus of many tropical diseases."
The students are collaborating with the Bawa Health Initiative, an independent nonprofit charitable organization established to provide primary health care to residents of Bawa, reduce the prevalence of infectious diseases through education and prevention, supply clean drinking water to all residents of Bawa and educate the general public about parasitic diseases.
"We are hoping the end result of this venture will be that Bawa will be able to build a local health center, and the residents there will be able to support themselves and their economy by exporting their coffee beans to other countries," Hirsch said. "Our Quinnipiac students are hoping to help them bring those plans to fruition."
SIFE will also be working with an inner-city school in New Haven, the Metropolitan Business Academy, to advertise the coffee on the streets of New Haven, and to local, high-end coffee shops in the area.
The group hosted a launch party for Café Cameroon on April 8. During the event, the students offered free samples and sold one-pound bags of the coffee, which cost $15 each.
SIFE is an international organization that mobilizes university students around the world to make a difference in their communities while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders.
For more information, contact Hirsch at 203-582-3850 or e-mail him at rick.hirsch@quinnipiac.edu.