At Dean's Beans, we LOVE Timorese coffee. We're thrilled to share the Direct Development work we're doing RIGHT NOW with farmers in Atsabe Village!
Where the heck is East Timor (Timor Leste)?? It's a province at the south eastern end of the Indonesian Archipelago, made up of over 17,500 islands! Atsabe is a small village in the Emera region of Timor Leste. Check out the map below.
A Warm Welcome!
The whole beautiful village came out to greet us at the local health clinic.
Our mission: Use specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive change.
All children deserve access to education. When you drink Dean's Beans coffee, YOU help make that possible - one village at a time!
Here's Brendan in the Atsabe School Library.
Last fall, Beth and Brendan traveled to East Timor to visit our farming partners in Atsabe. Direct Development means that we actually know the farmers. When we're together we ask them what will make a difference for their communities, and we respond to their expressed needs. This is how we "walk our talk" in Timor.
Here's what we learned last fall. We spent time at the school in Atsabe. 560 farmers' children and grandchildren attend this school with just 16 teachers and a principal. THE SCHOOL HAS NO RUNNING WATER. There's a nearby well, but no pump or lines to get water to the school buildings. No water for toilets or handwashing or drinking. And the library needs furniture and books. Right now the library table is an old sheet of plywood on top of two saw horses surrounded by falling apart chairs.
As soon as an engineer provides a plan and estimate for creating a lasting solution for the water issue, Dean's Beans will happily fund that solution and make sure the library furniture is upgraded. This is our commitment to the coffee farmers who grow Timor Atsabe coffee.
On a trip to Timor in 2013, our Founder, Dean, met Brismo Gomes, one of the leaders in Atsabe. Good fun and great coffee ensued!
As a Dean's Beans customer, YOU are helping make this possible! Thank you!
If you want to learn more about coffee farming in East Timor and the work that we've done there in the past, check out our 2021 Year in Review blog post, along with this in-depth post from the blog archives.