Eighty Starbucks partners (employees) from Europe, the Middle East and Africa visited Rwanda in May, as part of the 2023 Origin Experience. The goal? To immerse in the story of coffee on the farms where it’s grown.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Similar Origin Experiences occurred earlier this year in Costa Rica, for North American partners, and Indonesia, for those in Asia Pacific. In total, 929 partners company-wide participated in Origin Experience in 2023. Since the program started in 2010, 3,344 partners have visited Origin.

The partners in Rwanda represented a variety of roles and perspectives within the company, from baristas to manufacturing to operations leaders, in both company-owned and licensed markets. They met farmers, agronomists, exporters and buyers; planted coffee seedlings and harvested coffee cherries; and saw how coffee is grown and processed.

See what they experienced, through this photo essay, and hear from partners about what they’re taking away.

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The lessons begin at Dukundakawa, a farming cooperative where partners learn about the different stages of the coffee plant: how a seed sprouts into a “little soldier” and then a “butterfly” before it’s planted in the ground to become a tree that will bear fruit in 2-3 years.

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They harvest cherries from trees that Origin Experience partners planted in 2019.

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Later that day, at Abakundakawa, a different cooperative,&nbsp;they see how the coffee is washed, processed and graded in the traditional manner – pushed by paddles along narrow canals – and dried on long, raised beds that stripe the lush green hillsides of Rwanda, a country nicknamed “the land of a thousand hills.” The coffee grown in Rwanda is used in Starbucks blends worldwide – Siren’s Blend, Green Apron Blend and Cold Brew Blend – as well as in high-end Starbucks Reserve selections like Rwanda Sholi and Rwanda Hingakawa.&nbsp;

Smallholder, subsistence farmers in Rwanda don’t have enough money for all the fertilizer they need, and often, the only way to get it is by having a cow. Cows make manure, which provides the raw material for compost, which helps coffee farmers improve their production. In the village of Musasa, Origin participants meet Faustin, a farmer who Starbucks gifted with a cow 10 years ago. Since then, he’s increased his yield – from 1.5 kilograms of coffee per tree to 4 kilograms per tree – and he’s used the extra income to pay for his children’s schooling, make improvements to his house and reinvest in his farm. 

In communities like Faustin’s, tradition means gifting the first-born female calf to a neighbor in a public ceremony, and partners witness one such heartfelt exchange between families. “If I give you a cow, by default, you’re my friend forever,” says Arsene Mustafali Bin Uwihoreye, an agronomist at the Rwanda Starbucks Farmer Support Center who works with farmers in Musasa to improve yields. “It unites people.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

The next morning, partners visit RWACOF, the largest exporter of coffee in Rwanda and Starbucks biggest coffee supplier in the country. After the coffee is processed on the farms and the cooperatives, it’s brought here by truck to the RWACOF dry mill and warehouse to be hulled and sorted – both by hand and a buzzing assembly line of machines. The quality is re-inspected in a lab, where test batches are roasted and screened for taste and issues like Potato Taste Defect. Then it’s all bagged for delivery on container ships.

Partners also visit the Starbucks Rwanda Farmer Support Center to learn how the team helps coffee producers throughout east Africa grow and deliver the best product. 

And finally, they meet with representatives from Rwanda’s <a href="https://naeb.gov.rw/index.php?id=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Agricultural Export Development Board</a> for a formal presentation about the coffee industry.

Throughout the experience, Origin participants learn about how the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/hingakawa/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coffee industry helped Rwanda recover</a> from a violent past. They spend one afternoon in contemplation at the Rwanda Genocide Memorial in Kigali, the capital city, that commemorates the1994 Genocide against the Tutsi when Hutu extremists killed an estimated 1 million people. The memorial sits atop mass graves where an estimated 250,000 people are buried. Many participants come out shaken. Later, they hear the testimonies of the Women of Ineza, the victims of sexual violence during the genocide, who formed a support group and sewing cooperative. For all the sad moments, there are uplifting ones as well. Each cooperative greets Origin participants with welcome dances and singing. One night, a dance troop delights the participants back at the hotel with a beautiful celebratory performance.

On the final day, Origin participants visit a small village in the Musenyi sector for a community service project with The Starbucks Foundation and one of the nonprofits it supports, <a href="https://rippleeffect.org/us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ripple Effect</a>. The day’s work options – building a cow shed, planting vegetable gardens, plastering the exterior walls of houses, building bricks or constructing rainwater tanks – will help five women in this coffee-growing community, including four widows. The atmosphere is festive. Pop music blares from speakers on a big central field. Dozens of people from the community join the muddy, sweaty work. And afterwards, everyone dances in a big circle. Laurent Munyankusi, country director for Ripple Effect, tells the Starbucks participants, “For you to come here to Rwanda, it’s a big blessing. The only way to address the problems of this world is through partnership.”

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Follow the journey of three Starbucks&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2022/barista-championships-2022-milan-winner/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EMEA Barista Champions</a>, as they experience Origin for the very first&nbsp;time.

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Starbucks partners (employees) from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa traveled to Rwanda in May to immerse in the story of coffee, on the farms where it's grown.

Rwanda Origin Experience 2023

Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

Starbucks Stories

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Starbucks Origin Experience takes Starbucks partners (employees) from behind the bar or office desks and places them among&nbsp;the people that grow, harvest and produce the coffee.​

The aim of the experience: build a bridge between what Starbucks calls “the first 10 feet” – the coffee farms themselves – and&nbsp;the “last 10 feet,” where a customer orders and consumes their&nbsp;favourite&nbsp;coffee. Iced, hot or shaken – however the beverage&nbsp;is crafted – the coffee is&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/cafe-practices-starbucks-approach-to-ethically-sourcing-coffee/">ethically sourced&nbsp;</a>by farmers around the world.&nbsp;​

This year,&nbsp;80&nbsp;Starbucks partners from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) travelled to Rwanda to immerse in the&nbsp;origin of coffee in the East African nation.​

We followed the journey of three partners, all Starbucks&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2022/barista-championships-2022-milan-winner/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EMEA Barista Champions</a>, as they experienced Origin for the very first&nbsp;time.&nbsp;

This is&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2021/teddys-journey-barista-champion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Teddy</a>&nbsp;(2019 Champion),&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2022/cynthias-journey-barista-champion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cynthia</a>&nbsp;(2021 Champion), and&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2022/meet-phuti-south-africas-barista-champion-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Phuti’s</a>&nbsp;(2022 Champion) story from&nbsp;store&nbsp;to&nbsp;farm.​

​See more photos from the Rwanda Origin Experience <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2023/rwanda-origin-experience-2023/">here</a>.

Every year, partners (employees) from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa travel to Rwanda to be immersed in the origin of coffee.

Store to Farm: Rwanda Origin Experience​

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Every year, partners (employees) from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa travel to Rwanda to be immersed in the origin of coffee. From behind the store counters to meeting the people that grow, harvest and produce our coffee. This is Starbucks Origin Experience.

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Weaving is part of the culture Seraphine Mukandamage inherited as a child growing up in Rwanda. About 10 years ago, she started working with <a href="https://www.allacrossafrica.org/">All Across Africa</a>, a San Diego-based organization which works with women artisans in sub-Saharan Africa to bring their products to the global marketplace, negotiate fair prices and help create social and economic impact in their communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;

She’s leveraged that relationship well, putting electricity in her house, becoming a leader in a local cooperative and paying for her children’s education. Two of her children have graduated from college and another is going to Europe to study veterinary science.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“As a mother of seven children, I want them to live a good life in this challenging world,” she said. “To help them to make it, I have to pay for their education to the (highest) possible level. The second goal is to acquire more land so that my children would inherit enough plots for their future homes. For these two goals, I am on (a) good way to achieve them.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

Mukandamage is one of the women behind a new collection of Starbucks handwoven merchandise, available while supplies last at select Starbucks Reserve locations, including Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in Chicago, New York and Seattle, and the SoDo Starbucks Reserve Store in Seattle.

The seven-piece collection – vases, bowls, keychains and pom boxes (baskets with lids traditionally used to carry gifts to special occasions like weddings) – was designed and made by the women who work with All Across Africa. Their stories and photos will be featured on hanging tags attached to each item. 

“We believe our customers will be drawn into the collection because it’s different, colorful and pretty, and when they learn more about it, we hope the story and women behind the collection is what speaks to them,” said Gretchen Kulesza, senior product manager for Starbucks Reserve merchandise.

All the handwoven products are made from natural fibers and inspired by the art cards that accompany bags of Starbucks Reserve Rwanda Hingakawa coffee, one of the featured coffees at Starbucks Reserve locations and select Starbucks stores this summer.

Starbucks has long sold single-origin whole bean coffee from Rwanda. The group of farmers who produce it belong to a women-run cooperative called Hingakawa, a mantra which means “let’s grow coffee.” Coffee became a livelihood for more than 500 Rwandan women who joined together to form the cooperative following the genocide against the Tutsi people in 1994, which killed more than 800,000 people.

Starbucks believes specialty coffee is a profoundly human endeavor, and it’s nowhere more evident than in Rwanda, where the Hingakawa farmers had to piece their community back together with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfSSN7aHXAg">resiliency and reconciliation</a>. Starbucks is proud to share a coffee that is a product of patience, care and love.

For Alicia Wallace, chief operating officer of All Across Africa, the collaboration with Starbucks is a natural one that makes “good business and social-impact sense.” Both organizations are committed to community, sustainability and empowering women in leadership. The collection will also carry the <a href="https://www.buildanest.org/the-nest-seal/">Nest Seal designation</a>, a symbol of assurance that the items have been ethically made, fair wages are paid and children are not employed.

“What these jobs create is dignity, that energy and the confidence in the woman, that she is capable, that the world needs her,” Wallace said. “They walk around with their head up, their heads held high.”&nbsp;

All Across Africa grew out of a desire to create local jobs in rural areas with extreme poverty. The organization employs more than 6,300 artisans in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana – organized into cooperative structures with elections. Business and leadership decisions are made at the local level.&nbsp;&nbsp;

For Mukandamage, “weaving and creativity is my passion.” She considers herself a skilled and experienced weaver but pay was low and inconsistent in the local markets. Working with All Across Africa became an opportunity to fulfill bigger orders and work on more challenging projects. She learned new techniques and incorporated new colors, materials and designs. She became a mentor and trainer to about 100 young women in her community.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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The opportunity to earn a living for herself and her family through weaving alone became a matter of “serious business,” she said, “a golden chance I couldn’t lose.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

“To (be a) Rwandan woman today, it means a lot to me. I have to spread love to everyone, speak the truth to power… I have to work hard to help everyone live a better life.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

To learn more about the Hingakawa Cooperative, visit <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/hingakawa/">Starbucks Stories: Hingakawa</a>.

The vases, bowls, keychains and boxes – inspired by the story of Starbucks Reserve Rwanda Hingakawa coffee – are made by women working with All Across Africa.

Collection of handwoven products by Rwandan women coming to Starbucks Reserve locations this summer

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It looked like a cup of coffee, but it was far more than that, the Starbucks barista said as she served it at the Shanghai Roastery. “You know what’s special about this cup of coffee? It was grown by a woman, harvested by a woman, brewed by a woman, and is now about to be drank by a woman,” she told Starbucks filmmaker Luanne Dietz.

The coffee was from Hingakawa, a woman-run cooperative in Rwanda. The coffee was more than a beverage – it was the livelihood for more than 500 women who have joined together to grow, harvest, dry and sell their coffee. And for many, it was also what drew together women from opposite sides of the 1994 genocide – women whose husbands were killed, and women whose husbands had participated in the genocide. In those years after, when so many men were killed or imprisoned, it was up to the women to provide for their families. To survive, they needed each other. The women of Hingakawa feel like, “these are my sisters,” said Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana, minister of agriculture and animal resources in Rwanda.

The story of that one cup of coffee, served a world away, sparked what would become the short documentary “Hingakawa.” In that spirit, “Hingakawa” was directed, filmed and edited by an all-female crew.

Meet the crew behind 'Hingakawa' documentary - Starbucks Stories

Meet the crew behind &#8216;Hingakawa&#8217; documentary

The Starbucks Productions original documentary "Hingakawa" was directed, filmed and edited by an all-female crew.

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Meet the crew behind ‘Hingakawa’ documentary

GAKENKE DISTRICT, Rwanda -- They’re called Angel’s Trumpets – elegant white cone-shaped flowers – and they are swaying gently in the breeze on this warm afternoon outside the home where Vestine* lives. Nearby, the next-door neighbor’s cow moos. The small cluster of homes, nestled next to each other, overlooks a lush, green hillside. It’s peaceful here. 

They were constructed for survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when Hutu extremists, the largest ethnic group in Rwanda, killed a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to stop the killings.

It was a time when neighbor rose up against neighbor, some who had known each other for years. By the time what's officially known as the Genocide Against the Tutsi was over, 100 days after it began, homes, families, friendships were decimated. 

Months later, Vestine met a woman named Genevieve*, once on the other side of the divide, who would become one of her closest friends. Their story is featured in the short documentary "Hingakawa" by Starbucks Productions. Its theatrical debut is April 11 <a href="https://2019sff.eventive.org/films/5c86d54f54a41f002365dfe8">at the Sarasota Film Festival</a>.

Vestine was 15 when her family was killed – her parents, siblings, grandparents and aunts. Her life since then has been about finding a way forward. Today, she lives here with her husband, four children and granddaughter, ranging in age from a young adult to a toddler.

Furniture is sparse, but there is love here. As her children wander through the house, Vestine explains how they are her hope. They know what she’s been through, but also know it’s important to stay open to others. “They know they have to give every visitor a warm welcome,” she said. 

“In my life, when I am with other people talking, it makes me happy,” she said.

When she herself was a child, she lived in a valley not far from this house. Her home was destroyed during the genocide, but she remembers happy times there with her siblings and parents. Sometimes her mom would surprise her with a treat – food or a piece of clothing. It’s the little memories like that of everyday things that stand out to her – the delicious normalcy of a time before nothing was ever normal again. 

“She took good care of me, I can’t forget her,” she said. “It’s not possible to forget my mom.”

Now, one of the things that brings her comfort is simply feeling safe, here at home with her family, on this hill. “The fact that I am safe, I feel like I am happy,” she said. 

A 40-minute walk away, outside another house on a different hill, Genevieve stands with the youngest of her five children. In the front yard, her mother-in-law, 97 years old, sits in the sun with neighbor children, her walking stick resting beside her. Genevieve has something that Vestine doesn’t – elders. As a Hutu, her family is intact. 

One of her sons is disabled, and she is devoted to taking care of him. She worries a little about what will happen to him when she’s old but she’s confident his brothers and sisters will take care of him with the same love she does. 

As she talks, a white chicken wanders by, one of the small menagerie of animals she has, along with a cow, which has a calf.

Her home is her sanctuary. She loves growing vegetables to cook for family and neighbors. Community is important to her. So is her faith. She's a devout Catholic and around her neck hangs a cross. Pictures of Jesus adorn her home. On the weekends, she walks over an hour to church to pray with her congregation. 

Genevieve has an easy smile and, when she realizes a visitor isn’t feeling well, ducks into the house to return with a mat and a pillow. This natural concern for others is how she and Vestine met, back when she worked at a health clinic where Vestine had just given birth, without any family to help her know how to take care of a little baby. &nbsp;

Though Genevieve, 47, is only seven years older, over time, Vestine has come to see her as a mother figure. 

“I did not abandon her,” Genevieve said. “We kept our relationship and, even now, she cannot have any problem about me and vice versa.”

Their lives have remained entwined over the years, with both of them part of the Hingakawa coffee co-op, which is run by all women. Both married, they each have their own coffee trees and pride themselves in being able to help provide for their families. 

During the off-season, when they don’t see each other at the co-op, Vestine, 40, and Genevieve seek each other out. “When three days pass without seeing her,” Vestine said, “I go and look for her or she comes and looks for me as well; we cannot be separated.”

Family isn’t only whom you are related to by blood – it’s also whom you choose. Vestine and Genevieve choose each other. 

Vestine “really loves everybody at the same level with no discrimination, she takes care of everyone,” said Genevieve. “I love her.”

For her part, Vestine said of Genevieve, “What I learned from her is love. Loving my colleagues, being sympathetic with others and, for example if someone falls sick, I can help him. I learned all these from Genevieve.” 

Luanne Dietz and Peace Hillary Tumwesigire contributed to this article.

*For reasons of personal safety, in a country so focused on reunification that to speak otherwise can be a crime, their last names are being withheld. 

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Meet the two women, once on opposite sides of the Rwandan genocide, who are now each other’s strength.

Finding home: Vestine and Genevieve, two women at the heart of 'Hingakawa' - Starbucks Stories

Finding home: Vestine and Genevieve, two women at the heart of &#8216;Hingakawa&#8217;

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Finding home: Vestine and Genevieve, two women at the heart of 'Hingakawa'

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Finding home: Vestine and Genevieve, two women at the heart of ‘Hingakawa’

Twenty-five years ago this spring, more than a million people were killed in the Rwanda genocide against the Tutsi. But the seeds of division between Hutus and Tutsis, the country’s two largest ethnic groups, can be traced back decades<a href="https://rwandaembassy.org/about-rwanda">. In 1919, Belgian colonists</a> arrived in Rwanda and created ID cards identifying people by their ethnicities. The colonists considered Tutsis, who traditionally were cattle herders, to be above Hutus, who were known as farmers, and provided the Tutsis with more economic opportunities. In 1959, during a Hutu revolt against the colonial rule, thousands of Tutsis were killed. After Rwanda became independent from Belgium in 1962, Hutus took power. <a href="http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocide.shtml">As years went on</a>, some Tutsis who had fled to Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by a man named Paul Kagame.

April 6, 1994 President Juvenal Habyarimana is killed

Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, is in a plane that is shot down the night of April 6, 1994. Hutus blame the Tutsi. Tutsis say it was Hutus looking for a reason to trigger what came next. To this day, the true cause of the crash <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46687492">isn’t entirely clear.</a>

After Habyarimana’s plane goes down, calls go out over government-sponsored radio stations for Hutus to kill “the cockroaches,” or Tutsis. 

April 7, 1994 to July 1994 100 days of bloodshed, 1 million killed

Over the course of 100 days, a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus who opposed the genocide, are killed. Neighbor rises up against neighbor as the Hutus, the country’s largest ethnic group, attack Tutsis. 

The Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, defeats the extremist Hutu forces and ends the genocide. Pasteur Bizimungu becomes president of Rwanda. 

Rwanda's first genocide trial opens at the International Criminal Tribunal for those accused of participating in the genocide. Due to the high number of those accused, community courts, called <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18490348">gacaca,</a> are later formed across Rwanda.

Umuganda, where communities and neighbors come together once a month to work on a community project <a href="http://www.rgb.rw/index.php?id=37">is re-introduced in Rwanda</a> to encourage unity. On the last Saturday of the month, continuing to present day, all able-bodied people between the ages of 18-65 are required to spend three hours working together on a project.

Hutu President Pasteur Bizimungu resigns after falling out with members of his Tutsi-dominated ruling party. Vice President Paul Kagame is elected president by members of parliament and ministers.

That same year, Kagame announces Vision 2020, a framework to help reduce poverty by focusing on specific goals, including agricultural transformation.

Starbucks launches <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/community/farmer-support/social-development-investments">Global Farmer Fund, </a>and begins providing access to credit for coffee farmers at reasonable terms. This soon evolves into a commitment to provide $50 million to coffee communities around the world by 2020. Rwanda goes on to become one of the countries to receive funds.

The United States Agency for International Development begins investing in coffee’s infrastructure in Rwanda<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/business/yourmoney/06coffee.html">, providing financing for co-ops</a> to build washing stations, provide training and more.

2004 Abakundakawa coffee cooperative forms; genocide memorial opens

The Abakundakawa Cooperative, comprised of men and women in the Rushashi area who grow coffee, is formed. In the years to come, Starbucks develops a relationship with the cooperative.

Also in 2004, the <a href="https://www.kgm.rw/">Kigali Genocide Memorial</a> opens, featuring photos of those killed and special exhibits. Today, it serves as the final resting ground for the remains of 250,000 people killed in the genocide.

2008 Hingakawa women's coffee co-op opens

A group of women from Abakundakawa form their own, women-led cooperative called Hingakawa. It begins with 160 women, each required to have at least 100 coffee trees. It is comprised of women whose husbands had been killed during the genocide and those whose husbands participated in the killings. In addition to helping provide an income to women, it also provides a way for them to connect across past divisions to find common ground. In the years to come, Starbucks will develop a relationship with Hingakawa.

The <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/community/starbucks-foundation">Starbucks Foundation</a> awards a 3-year, $1 million grant to <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2008/starbucks-foundation-awards-us2-million-from-the-ethos-water-fund-to-help-i/">CARE</a> to support water, sanitation and hygiene education programs for coffee communities in Rwanda.

2009 Starbucks Farmer Support Center comes to Rwanda

Starbucks opens a <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/community/farmer-support/farmer-support-centers">Farmer Support Center</a> in Kigali, Rwanda, where agronomists working one-on-one with farmers in the field help improve the quality and profitability of their crops, as well as support co-ops and suppliers.

Rwanda officially closes its gacaca courts, which had tried 2 million people accused of crimes during the genocide. About 65 percent of them were found guilty. 

Inspired by a Starbucks partner’s visit to Rwanda, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2016/uk-starbucks-stores-help-farmers/">Starbucks stores in the UK begin an annual Coffee + Cows campaign to raise money for Send a Cow</a>, which provides training, tools, seeds and livestock to farmers in Rwanda.

2016 Rwanda joins Sustainable Coffee Challenge

Rwanda becomes one of the first countries to join the <a href="https://www.conservation.org/stories/sustainable-coffee-challenge/Pages/overview.aspx">Sustainable Coffee Challenge</a> – a global collaborative effort by Conservation International and Starbucks aimed at making coffee the world's first sustainable agricultural product.

Starbucks offers Hingakawa Reserve coffee in the U.S. for the first time. 

2018 Grants to support empowerment of women and girls

The Starbucks Foundation announces a <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-partners-with-malala-fund-to-invest-in-women/">new goal of empowering 250,000 women and girls</a> in coffee, tea and cocoa growing communities by 2025. Three grants made to <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/the-starbucks-foundations-origin-grants-to-empower-women-and-girls/">Days for Girls, Send a Cow, and World Relief</a> totaling more than $1 million will support programs around women’s leadership, access to finance, and healthy homes in Rwanda.

Hingakawa coffee to be sold in the summer of 2019 at select Starbucks stores in the Asia Pacific and Latin American markets.

The Starbucks Passport Series will include Starbucks Blonde Roast Rwanda coffee in U.S. Starbucks stores over the summer.

Commemorations will be held <a href="https://en.unesco.org/events/commemoration-25th-anniversary-1994-genocide-against-tutsi-rwanda">around the world</a> in April, marking <a href="https://genocidesurvivorsfoundation.org/25th-anniversary-commemoration-events-in-april/">the 25th anniversary</a> of the genocide.

Sources: <a href="https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/historical-background.shtml">United Nations</a>, <a href="http://www.gov.rw/home/">Government of Rwanda</a>, <a href="https://www.kgm.rw/">Kigali Genocide Memorial</a>, <a href="http://news.trust.org/item/20140402113037-u315s/">Thompson-Reuters Foundation News</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18490348">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.rgb.rw/index.php?id=2">Rwanda Governance Board</a>, <a href="https://genocidesurvivorsfoundation.org/25th-anniversary-commemoration-events-in-april/">Genocide Survivors Foundation,</a> <a href="http://www.allaboutrwanda.com/umuganda.html">AllAboutRwanda.com</a>, <a href="https://www.conservation.org/NewsRoom/pressreleases/Pages/Rwanda-and-Mexico-Become-First-Countries-to-Commit-to-Sustainable-Coffee-Challenge.aspx">Conservation International</a>, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/">Starbucks</a>

In the wake of the Rwandan genocide where a million people were killed, how does a country come together again? Here are some of the key moments.

Timeline: Moving forward 25 years after the Rwandan genocide - Starbucks Stories

Timeline: Moving forward 25 years after the Rwandan genocide

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https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/timeline-25-years-after-rwandan-genocide/

In the wake of the genocide where a million people were killed, how does a country come together again? Here are some of the milestones since and how reconciliation, coffee and co-ops intersected.

GAKENKE DISTRICT, Rwanda -- The sound began softly, with just one voice. Then, as the women stood shoulder to shoulder at the drying table sorting coffee beans, another joined in. Then another. And another.

The voices of young women with babies on their backs joined those of older women, their deeply lined faces a testament to the lives they’ve lived, and what they’ve lived through.

Watch the full film <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/hingakawa/">here</a>

Their voices built upon each other, blending into a powerful, united melody as they worked.

"Ayi ayi yehe, nasanze morare ariyo yambere! Ngo niyo waba ubabaye ariko ufite morare, nasanze morare ariyo yambere. Ngo niyo waba uhinga ariko ufite morare, nasanze morare ariyo yambere. Ngo niyo waba ushonze ariko ufite morare, nasanze morare ariyo yambere." Even when you are sad, hungry or you don't have much, try to focus on the positive and have a good attitude, they sang.

This is the Hingakawa coffee co-op, more than 500 women strong, located in the mountainous region of the Gakenke District. Each year, the women bring the coffee they’ve grown to the co-op to be sorted, dried and then sold. As a group, they make business decisions, negotiate for the best prices and support each other. Here, at Hingakawa, they know that they are strongest together. 

“When Hingakawa started after the genocide, we were facing poverty. There were people whose husbands had been killed – widowed women due to the genocide – and there were women whose husbands were jailed (for participating). We needed something that could help us meet,” said Colette,* a founding member and past president of the co-op. 

Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda was torn apart during a genocide that began on April 7, 1994 and lasted 100 days. Hutu extremists, the country’s largest ethnic group, killed more than a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, who had tried to intervene. It was a time when neighbors turned against neighbor and the rivers ran red with blood. 

One million people killed and multitudes of others gravely injured, both in body and spirit. It’s a number so vast that it’s hard to fathom. 

It can only truly be grasped one story at a time, multiplied exponentially. Each of those who were killed left behind husbands, wives, children, parents, best friends – all now grieving the irreplaceable person who was their world. 

Everyone in Rwanda of a certain age has a story. But how do you live with a story like that? Is it possible to forgive? Is it possible to trust again? And how do you stand, singing, next to a person whose family may have harmed or killed yours?

The answer – or at least one answer – is being lived out by Genevieve and Vestine*, one Hutu and one Tutsi, and the other women who comprise Hingakawa. These women are at the heart of the new documentary short, “Hingakawa,” by Starbucks Productions. Its theatrical debut is <a href="https://2019sff.eventive.org/films/5c86d54f54a41f002365dfe8">April 11 at the Sarasota Film Festival</a>.

‘The worst happened’

It’s impossible to truly understand what the genocide against the Tutsi was like, unless you lived through it, said Colette. It’s impossible to really grasp what it was like to see your family killed with machetes and to know the terror of being hunted. It’s impossible to know how to return to life again in a community cleaved from any illusion of safety.

“The worst happened in Rwanda. It’s as simple as that,” said Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana, the minister of agriculture and animal resources in Rwanda.

But how a divided country slowly began to find its way back together again – maybe that’s possible to begin to understand, a lesson needed the world over. 

The genocide officially began with an airplane crash. Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was in a plane that was shot down the night of April 6, 1994. Tension had been building for years between Hutus and Tutsis, the two largest ethnic groups in Rwanda. 

The divide can be traced back to 1919, when Belgian colonists arrived in Rwanda and created ID cards which identified people by their ethnicities. The colonists considered Tutsis, whom traditionally were cattle herders, to be above Hutus, whom were known as farmers, and provided the Tutsis with more economic opportunities. In 1959, during a Hutu revolt against the colonial rule, thousands of Tutsis were killed. After Rwanda became independent from Belgium in 1962, Hutus took power. <a href="http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocide.shtml">As years went on</a>, some Tutsis who had fled to Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by a man named Paul Kagame; they planned to eventually come back to Rwanda to overthrow Habyarimana.

When Habyarimana’s plane went down on that day in April, Hutus blamed the Tutsi. Tutsis said it was Hutus looking for a reason to trigger what came next. To this day, the true cause of the crash <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46687492">isn’t entirely clear.</a>

Vestine was 15 then and, living in a rural area, didn’t know anything about what was going on. She was walking home from school that day when a man walked up to her, slapped her and said, “The life of the Tutsi is in danger today. Now that you have killed Habyarimana, you will die too.” She didn’t understand. “I didn’t even know what a Tutsi was,” she said. “I just knew that I was like other people. We were the same.”

A few days later, spurred by messages on the radio telling Hutus to “kill the cockroaches,” local Hutus came with machetes. Her family fled into the forest. They would hide in the day and after the sun went down, would try to find food. “The night was my daytime,” she said. &nbsp;

Not far away, but seemingly worlds away, Genevieve, a Hutu who was seven years older and married, was waiting in the dark for her husband to return. 

As a Hutu, he was out with other men looting the property of those who had been killed. Back then, if you were asked to join other Hutus and refused, you were viewed as suspicious. She feared each night that he’d be killed, she said. And she didn’t understand why the Tutsi were being hunted. 

“They were the kind of sociable people we played with. I did not see them the way people described them,” she said. “… The fact that a person hunted another one and yet they bleed the same blood, this worried me.”

A few weeks after the genocide began, Vestine and her family were tricked into going home, believing they’d be given materials to rebuild their house. Instead, she saw her family killed before her eyes. She remembers it all. The machetes. Her brothers begging for their lives. Her mother being hit in the head with a club. 

She ran away, was caught and beaten and ran away again. Today, a scar maps her cheek where she was struck, over and over. “I am the only one who survived, just as you see me,” said Vestine, now 40. “I am a lone survivor.” 

A tentative friendship forms

The genocide ended in July of 1994, when the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front took control. Millions of Hutus fled Rwanda. The 100 days of killing were over.&nbsp; 

It wasn’t until months later that Vestine met Genevieve. Vestine, who had been raped, gave birth at the local health clinic where Genevieve worked.

Genevieve kept an eye out, knowing she had no one to help her. She stopped by her bed to visit, asking if she needed anything. At first, Vestine rebuffed her offers but Genevieve persisted, offering a basket of sweet potatoes, vegetables or flour for porridge. Slowly, Vestine’s heart began to open to her. 

“She approached me and wanted us to be friends,” Vestine said. “She helped me in my life.”

At home, Genevieve was on her own in another way. Her husband had gone to prison and had admitted to taking part in the lootings during a hearing in the community courts, called gacaca, and ordered to pay restoration.

He had grown coffee as a way to earn an income. Now, without him to tend the coffee trees, it was up to her.

All across the country, women were in the same situation. Much of an entire generation of men had either been killed, imprisoned or had fled the country. 

Coffee has long been an important crop in Rwanda, but it was primarily men’s work. Before the genocide, men worked in the farms while women took care of children, cooked and managed things at home. But after the genocide, with the men vanished, the coffee farms languished. Women, on their own, had to find a way to support their families – so they set out to learn how to grow coffee.

Alongside the staggering human loss after the genocide was deep poverty. In 1995, the year after the genocide, nearly 80 percent of the population of Rwanda lived below the national poverty line, <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/07/12/rwanda-achieving-food-security-reducing-poverty-moving-up-the-value-chain">according to the World Bank Group.</a> It was up to the women who were left to change that.

“With support, training and with a movement toward women empowerment in the country, they got engaged,” said Mukeshimana, the agriculture minister. 

And, the women had to not only learn how to grow coffee, but also the business of how to market it.

‘Let’s grow coffee’

In 2000, Paul Kagame, the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who had been elected president after the genocide, came up with a government program, called Vision 2020, to lift his people from poverty. Among the core tenants were gender equity and developing agricultural programs, including coffee.

The following year, the United States Agency for International Development began investing in coffee’s infrastructure in Rwanda, providing financing for co-ops to build washing stations, provide training and more.

The Abakundakawa coffee co-op was started in 2004, for both men and women. Four years later, in 2008, an offshoot just for women coffee farmers, Hingakawa, was formed. 

“We knew our husbands already had their coffee and we followed their footsteps and we got coffee,” said Genevieve, now 47 and the mother of five children. “That coffee I got gave me dignity. I met other women and we shared ideas.”

Its name, Hingakawa, means “Let’s grow coffee” in Kinyarwandan. It’s an exhortation as much as it is the name of the women’s coffee co-op. It began with 160 members, said Nakabonye, the former co-op president. Today, it has more than 500. Coffee companies around the world, including Starbucks, buy beans from Hingakawa. This summer, coffee beans from Hingakawa will be sold in select Starbucks stores in the Asia Pacific and Latin American markets. 

Both Vestine and Genevieve, who both own small coffee farms, are part of Hingakawa. To join the co-op, women needed to have at least 100 coffee trees of their own, said Colette, the past president of Hingakawa.

While women joined the co-op to help improve their financial lives, it was clear something else was happening. Neighbors, who had once turned against each other, were coming back together and learning to rely on each other. 

“An important thing was to unite people in the problems we were facing,” Colette said. “Someone whose husband was jailed was suffering. Someone whose families were massacred was suffering too. … We met there and hence, an opportunity to reconcile.”

It wasn’t always easy. She remembers some tense early meetings. “In the beginning there was a suspicion, where people did not easily talk to each other. People were afraid of each other. One of them may have someone who is prison, another one says he is the one who killed my relative and another says it is this one who caused the imprisonment of my relative,” she said. “It was bad. We told them that we would be meeting once a month.”

The women met and talked about everything. It was all on the table. Meanwhile, they were working together, washing coffee cherries, drying beans and sorting them together. They needed each other.

Together, the women realized that could sell their coffee for more than they’d been able to on their own. Women in co-ops increase their income four-fold from what they could earn individually, said Mukeshimana, the minister of agriculture. The women of Hingakawa also set up an emergency fund that could be lent to a co-op member facing an immediate crisis. 

When women are empowered to make decisions about income, families are able to be more successful, Mukeshimana said. “We have seen it in terms of nutrition outcomes, for security outcomes, health care outcomes. … There’s confidence in being one of a community and having a voice.”

Rwanda

Rwanda Origin Experience 2023

Store to Farm: Rwanda Origin Experience

Collection of handwoven products by Rwandan women coming to Starbucks Reserve locations this summer

Meet the crew behind ‘Hingakawa’ documentary

Finding home: Vestine and Genevieve, two women at the heart of ‘Hingakawa’

Timeline: Moving forward 25 years after the Rwandan genocide

Beyond coffee: How a Rwandan co-op united women after the genocide

The Starbucks Foundation’s 2019 Origin Grants to Empower Women and Girls

Rwanda

Rwanda Origin Experience 2023

Store to Farm: Rwanda Origin Experience​

Collection of handwoven products by Rwandan women coming to Starbucks Reserve locations this summer

Meet the crew behind ‘Hingakawa’ documentary

Finding home: Vestine and Genevieve, two women at the heart of ‘Hingakawa’

Timeline: Moving forward 25 years after the Rwandan genocide

Beyond coffee: How a Rwandan co-op united women after the genocide

The Starbucks Foundation’s 2019 Origin Grants to Empower Women and Girls

Store to Farm: Rwanda Origin Experience