RukaFe is committed to brewing innovation through farmer transformation. RukaFe connects farmers to the world. It's November 23, 2015. Impact i believed in.
Farmers receive a tailored farmer-centric approach to jointly develop innovative solutions in making the coffee sector sustainable. I am sitting by the riverbank of the Zambezi River on a hot hot afternoon. The sun is starting to set. We have managed to successfully start a fire in order to boil some river water and I am now sitting...endlessly waiting... I am stinky, hungry and reaching my phys
ical limits of exhaustion. I am so dehydrated that I am told to speak as little as possible and to not lick my lips because it will only make it worse. What better moment to reflect on my life than taking a survival course and discovering my limits and putting my life into perspective? I had recently been wait listed for a climate fellowship I had worked so hard for (uncertain if my next journey would take me to Berlin or stay in Mozambique) and was feeling like something was missing in my life and in my career. For years I had been working within the development sector with climate change and disaster risk reduction; wanting to have a positive impact on communities and making them more resilient (whatever that means). I was frustrated, hopeless and angry at the system. Suddenly one of the guys asks me "what's the first thing you will do when you get back to civilization?" My reply and what came to me as an "aha moment" was " i will have a double espresso". It was in this espresso craving moment that I made a decision to have a career and life change. To chase after my dreams of having a career of real impact. I never got the fellowship I was waiting for, but that was OK because I had decided before getting the news that I would take a chance on myself and open a social enterprise. And while there's no doubt that it has been a bumpy ride...here we are with project RukaFe. People usually say "the rest is history"...I will not say that as we are just starting to write our history. If you want to find out more about RukaFe then join me on this journey. It will be long, bumpy and it may hurt a little...but what adventure doesn't? One thing is for sure; will sure enjoy the landscape while on the road knowing well that it's not about the destination. "If you want to go fast, go alone...if you want to go far...go together" African proverb
Looking forward to the adventure. Cheers,
Marcela Ricupero
Founder
