Guatemala Pocola School Project

Guatemala Pocola coffee from Finca Santa Paula will be available from the online shop and selected Grumpy Mule stockists from 11th November 2009.

For every pack of Guatemala Pocola sold, Grumpy Mule will donate 20p to the Rubel Raxtu School to help buy equipment, books and furnishings and to support the education of the pupils in this coffee growing community.

The Rubel Raxtul School

Rob and Ian visited the Coban region of Guatemala back in January 2009, meeting producers Christian Schaps and Roni Ascensio at their rehabilitated Santa Paula farm. It was immediately apparant that their coffee would make a fantastic addition to the Grumpy Mule range and we agreed to buy the crop from the 2009 harvest and to build a producer-roaster relationship for the future.

On their return from the trip to Finca Santa Paula, Rob talked about the community school that was located within the boundaries of the coffee farm and it seemed logical that if we were taking something away from the local area (ie the coffee) it would be great to put something back. By linking the project to each pack of coffee, it will allow you as the consumer to have a direct influence in Pocola.

Escuela Rubel Raxtul was named after the farmer who donated the land on which the school stands – the land is within the boundaries of the coffee farm Finca Santa Paula – and was opened in 1966. This school for 4 – 12 years old teaches over 200 boys and girls with lessons given in the local Q’eqchi language and Spanish. There are presently 7 teachers and 1 head teacher.

If everyone gets behind us on this project, with a 20p per pack of coffee donation we hope to see a contribution of over £2000 to the school. We’ll keep you all informed of ongoing progress via this page with updated stories, pictures and links.

The "Pocola" Drawings

The pupils from the school very kindly drew us some really fantastic pictures of their community, capturing all of the key elements such as coffee plantations, shops, school, football pitch and cultural aspects such as the flag of Guatemala. We'd like to thank each and every one of them for those!

We'll post links to the full gallery of drawings very soon.