IWCA Chapters At-A-Glance: Latin America & the Caribbean
IWCA Chapters are independent, volunteer-driven, community impact organizations. Contact information is listed below to facilitate partnership building. Contributions can be made to specific IWCA Chapters through the IWCA Online Donations Portal.
IWCA Costa Rica
President: Kathia Zamora Afaro, Vice President: Gabriela Miranda Loría
Chapters members in 2019 Strategic Planning Session
Also known as Alianza de Mujeres en Café de Costa Rica
Members: 12+, Estimated beneficiaries: 5,000
Regions: All coffee growing regions.
Strategic Priorities: supporting farming communities, working to build partnerships to continue Chapter operations
IWCA Dominican Republic
President: Maria Estefani Zapata, Vice President: Maria Moreta
Members: 280+; 50%+ coffee producers, 40%+ coffee workers
Regions: All regions in country.
Strategic Priorities: promote leadership of women coffee producers at national and international levels; build organizational capacity through education programs to strengthen women as business leaders.
Working to launch Phase II of local roasting company with coffee from IWCA Chapter members. Phase I began in 2019 through a project with Caffe Vergnano who donated and shipped a coffee roaster to the Chapter in the Dominican Republic.
IWCA EL Salvador
President: Maria Elena de Botto, Vice President: Maria Pacas
Also known as Alianza de Mujeres en Café El Salvador
Members: 80+; 65%+ coffee producers, 20%+ exporters
Regions: Apaneca-Ilamatpec, Alotepec-Metapan, Balsamo-Quezaltepec, Chinchontepec, Tecapa-Chinameca, Cacahuatique
Strategic Priorities: create opportunities to build women’s entrepreneurship in agriculture and agro-industries to increase coffee family incomes, projects to support equity and equality in all forums, international partnerships.
IWCA Guatemala
President: Patricia Rios, Vice President: Ana Isabel Giron
Also known as Asociación de Mujeres en Café Guatemala
100+ members. 40+% coffee producers, 36% exporters
Departments: Chimaltenango, El Progreso, El Quiché, Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Jalap, Jutiapa, Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, Sacatepéquez, San Marcos, Santa Rosa, Sololá, Suchitepéquez, Zacapa.
Strategic Priorities: provide a forum for women to support and encourage one another, especially to overcome challenges and achieve sustainable livelihoods; cultivate women leaders as models of competitiveness at the national and international levels.
IWCA Honduras
President: Orieta Pinto Vice President: Sarahi Chavéz
Also known as Mujeres en Café Honduras
Members: 300, 84% are coffee exporters
Regions: All coffee regions. IWCA Honduras subchapters in Occidente, SPS, Tegucigalpa, Marcala, El Paraiso y Olancho.
Strategic Priorities: Encourage the active participation of women in coffee at national and international levels; provide women production, processing and marketing of coffee, the necessary tools to become a model of competitiveness nationally and internationally; build alliances to develop business opportunities and achieve sustainable livelihoods.
IWCA Jamaica
President: Marshalee Valentine Vice President: Dr. Anne Therese Birthwright
Also known as Jamaican Women in Coffee (JaWiC)
Regions: all regions of Jamaica and the diaspora
Members: 9; estimated beneficiaries: 67+
Strategic Priorities: Transform the coffee sector for women in coffee in Jamaica via field survey, quality, market access, sustainability, and leadership development.
Project with Coffee Quality Institute: Higher Ground Uplifting Women in the Jamaican Coffee Industry
President: Gabriela Figueroa-Hueck Vice-President: Alexa Marin
Also known as Alianza de Mujeres en Café de Nicaragua
45 members. 40+% coffee producers
Regions: Jinotega, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Esteli, Boaco, Madriz and Managua.
Strategic Priorities: Building partnerships for training, advice and business development. Amplify the visibility of women in the coffee in the international and national markets.