Adding to basket
Charity: "Give a woman a fruit, feed her for a day."
Education: "Teach a woman to farm fruit, feed her for a lifetime."
Social Entrepreneurship: "Teach a woman to run a fruit drying business, feed a village for a lifetime.”
As a Peace Corps volunteer, Phil Hughes (right, third photo) saw that rural farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa could sell 30-40% of their harvest. Phil created Mavuno Harvest (see video) to address the remaining crop that previously was left to rot. Mavuno Harvest provides markets for these farmers and their products by drying fruit, thus increasing the demand for fruit and increasing farming incomes.
This is Mavuno Harvest’s second Kiva loan. Since their first Kiva loan they have more than doubled their sales revenue, introduced dried coconut as a new product, and now source from more than 500 farmers across Ghana (40%), Burkina Faso (35%) and Uganda (25%).
Mavuno Harvest sells these organic, fair trade dried fruits in major retailers around the United States. A second Kiva loan will help Mavuno Harvest to: (1) increase purchase sizes from the farmers to expand US distribution, (2) expand the company to Kenya by introducing a new product of organic, fair trade cashews.
