Shared Interest recently approved a loan of USD 40,000 for coffee cooperative Dukunde Kawa (MUSASA) in Rwanda in order for them to construct a new washing station on land allocated to them by the country’s Coffee Board.

MUSASA was founded in 2009 with 300 founder members, although there are now over 2000 members. MUSASA cultivates high quality coffee in the Ruli sector of Rushashi District which is near a mountain gorilla habitat in central Rwanda. In 2003 the cooperative built an inital washing station with the help of a donation from the Rwandan ministry of defence (MINADEF) and in exchange for the donation MUSASA agreed to donate to a government fund which is used to construct washing stations throughout Rwanda.

MUSASA have been FLO certified since 2004 and with the proceeds from their fair trade sales the cooperative they have been able to initate various projects such as the purchasing of computers to improve their accounting department and they have also bought bicycles for each of their production zones in order to transport coffee cherries to the washing station.  Other projects include credit schemes to pay for the school fees for their members children and health insurance and loan facilities for members to buy cattle. An example of the impact MUSASA have had in their community is that the fair trade premium has enabled their members to renovate their homes which now all have tile or iron sheet roofs rather than the traditional grass roofs.The new washing station will bring the coffee processing services even closer to MUSASA’s members who currently have to travel long distances to deliver coffee to other washing stations some of which are owned by other cooperatives.  Building a new washing station will go a long way in increasing MUSASA’s production.

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