El Amor de Madre – a Mother’s Love is currently the house coffee [...]]]>

Since our successful Coffee Auction back in June, we’ve had a bunch of roasters and retailers express interest in promoting Grounds for Health through benefit coffees. Below are just a few that you can purchase online.

Kimberton Whole Foods: El Amor de Madre

El Amor de Madre – a Mother’s Love is currently the house coffee for a new local food-centric cafe in Lionville, PA called Healthy Beings Cafe. The original creator (and current roaster) of the blend, Ed Humpal, has been roasting El Amor as a benefit coffee for GFH for over a year.

The blend is smooth and sweet, a little spicy and nutty with deep caramel flavors. It is mostly a Brazilian bean from Poco Fundo with a Fair Trade organic bean from the Mancotal Valley in Nicaragua as an accent, rounding out the flavor profile.

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(buy two bags and get free shipping)

Reunion Island: Bullet Espresso

Reunion Island has been a model supporter of Grounds for Health, holding special promotions, fundraisers and events. This coffee company out of Toronto specifically created Bullet Espresso as a benefit coffee, and has used it to raise a significant sum for Grounds for Health.

With notes of chocolate and black currant, Bullet’s Brazilian, Ethiopian and Sumatran beans offer a full body and smooth finish to satisfy the serious espresso drinker. The unique roast cycle that we developed specifically for Bullet triggers complex chemical reactions within the beans, preparing them to yield a rich, thick crema on every shot.

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Joe Van Gogh: El Salvador Cerros Las Ranas

North Carolina roaster/retailer Joe Van Gogh is a new supporter of Grounds for Health, and has hit the ground running. Joe Van Gogh purchased this coffee at our Coffee Auction and donates 50¢ for every 12oz package sold.

This shade-grown, Rainforest Alliance certified coffee undergoes a pulp natural process also known as honey process. In this drying process, the cherries have the skin removed, leaving the fruity mucilage on the bean before patio-drying. Notes of cocoa powder with an earthy sweetness topped with a creamy body.

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The Roastery: Multiple Blends

At this year’s SCAA conference, we had the joy of meeting the man behind The Roastery, Jeremy Raths. He exemplifies the passion, energy and empathy of the coffee industry. Plus he has a great sense of humor. But we’ll spare you the inside jokes and just say it’s been wonderful to have The Roastery as a steadfast supporter.

Through a special promotion with Minneapolis/St. Paul news site The Daily Planet, The Roastery offers four different blends that directly benefit Grounds for Health.

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Where Women Have No Doctor was a collaborative project of hundreds of women worldwide to bring information on reproductive health and women’s lives to poor women without access to basic health care and information. It is now translated into over 30 languages from Iban (language of the Longhouse People [...]]]>

Where Women Have No Doctor

Where Women Have No Doctor was a collaborative project of hundreds of women worldwide to bring information on reproductive health and women’s lives to poor women without access to basic health care and information. It is now translated into over 30 languages from Iban (language of the Longhouse People of Sarawac East Malasia), to Bengali.  Written in simple language and with more than 1500 illustrations, it depicts women from all cultures and their shared problems and solutions. It was written to be used by the village health worker or anyone who could read or be read to and who wanted to improve women’s health and lives.

While it is a valuable resource that we at Grounds for Health would like to share with our community partners, it is also valuable for any woman who wants to learn about her body or address a health concern. Its 600 pages packs in information ranging from pregnancy, cancer, family planning, to domestic violence, refugee issues, and substance abuse. It includes practical information on basic health exams and contains a wealth of information on treating illnesses with 40 pages dedicated to complete information on medicines including info on their indications, use, and contraindications.

It’s an excellent resource available to low-income groups at an affordable price and is available to download for free at Heperian.org. Check it out and spread the word about this useful resource.

In today’s socially conscious world, we’re gaining a greater and greater understanding of how to responsibly help the less privileged world—be it in health care, agriculture, economics or otherwise. We’re no longer just asking, “what needs to be done,” but we’re examining how things can be done to have a lasting and meaningful impact. [...]]]>

In today’s socially conscious world, we’re gaining a greater and greater understanding of how to responsibly help the less privileged world—be it in health care, agriculture, economics or otherwise. We’re no longer just asking, “what needs to be done,” but we’re examining how things can be done to have a lasting and meaningful impact. However, these days “sustainability” and “sustainable” are buzz words that seem to be thrown around haphazardly.

So we’re going to throw it out there:

• What is “sustainability?”
• How can we tell if our efforts are leading to it?
• How do we know when we’ve accomplished it?
• What are some good examples and why?
  

What do you think? What’s your experience? Are these questions even answerable?

After days of canceled flights and other travel woes, our full team of staff and volunteers has finally arrived in Kigoma, Tanzania. This month, they’ll be training ten more local health workers [...]]]>

Katie, August (left) with Alice Macharia, JGI director of East Africa programs in front of a classic image of Dr. Jane Goodall

After days of canceled flights and other travel woes, our full team of staff and volunteers has finally arrived in Kigoma, Tanzania. This month, they’ll be training ten more local health workers in the Single Visit Approach and screening nearly 300 women. They’ll also have the pleasure of a visit from Dr. Jane Goodall herself, who is celebrating 50 years of saving chimpanzees and empowering their human neighbors in the nearby Gombe National Park.

Just last month, August and I visited the Jane Goodall Institute in Washington, DC. JGI has been Grounds for Health’s partner in Tanzania since the inception of our program there, linking us to community leaders, local health authorities, and JGI’s thriving network of village health promoters, or community-based distribution agents (CBDAs).

In a meeting with JGI’s Alice Macharia, George Strunden, and Claire Jones, we discussed the key outcomes of our last two years in Kigoma. In that time, we’ve equipped two regional hospitals for cryotherapy, trained ten doctors and nurses, screened over 1,500 women, and of the 40 who tested positive, 90% were able to receive treatment the same day. We’ve recruited Dr. Annah Kichambati, former lead trainer for JGI’s CBDA program, to coordinate follow-up with trainees and promoters. The Tanzanian Ministry of Health has named our program one of five national demonstration sites. In light of these successes, we cemented our commitment to an ongoing Grounds for Health/JGI partnership and to telling the powerful story of our work in Kigoma.

In the coming year, we’ll be partnering with the International Committee for AIDS Prevention (ICAP), regional and national Ministries of Health, and our long-standing coffee partners Kanyovu and Sustainable Harvest, to expand our programs and ensure their long-term sustainability. Thanks to these collaborations, we’ve been able to align Grounds for Health’s and JGI’s missions of women’s health and conservation through community empowerment.

Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on what’s being said about Grounds for Health.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who donated coffee and all of those who bid. This event is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and without [...]]]>

The 2010 Grounds for Health Auction raised an impressive $106,500, which is 10% more than last year! 100% of proceeds will benefit our programs in Tanzania, Mexico and Nicaragua.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who donated coffee and all of those who bid. This event is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and without your support, much of what we do couldn’t be possible.

A huge thank you also goes out to Malcolm Stone at Stoneworks Auctions, and Rocky Rhodes, our Auction Guru. Their dedication and drive made the entire auction a success. Thank you.

Snapshot of the auction:

• Total Money Raised: $106,500
• Pounds of Coffee Donated: 34,470

Featured Donors:

• Royal Coffee, Inc
• Green Mountain Coffee
• SCAA / Roaster’s Guild Coffees of the Year
• Daterra Coffee
• Descamex

Winning Bidders