Empowerment can come from many angles, though sometimes it feels hopeless for any one single person to make a difference. Cruising down the grocery aisle, list in hand, doesn't feel so glamorous. Maybe discovering the source of where your everyday household products come from will make a simple trip to the store not so mundane anymore.

On the weekends I have the opportunity to work as a barista in a local coffee shop downtown. When I was hired on, I spent about 3 hours watching informative videos on the process of how coffee beans are grown, roasted and eventually placed strategically on the shelves of your local store. I had never taken the time to sit down and understand how it all really works; how many people go into the creation of the product that brings friends together to sit around and chat or helps the businessman wake up in the morning so he can go make a living for his family. There is so much more that goes on behind a simple purchase and understanding how it all works can give you the power to empower others!

Cafe Direct is one of many businesses that seek to provide more than a high-quality product. As mentioned on their website, Cafe Direct's mission "...is to change lives and build communities through inspirational, sustainable business. We focus our social and economic impact in the developing world." Cafe Direct is the UK's largest fair trade hot drinks company. The company proudly works with 40 producer organizations in 14 countries and ensures that over 250,000 growers receive a fair income. Cafe Direct takes it one step further and has invested 3 million euro into the businesses of their growing partners, which happens to be over half over their profits.

Ugandan coffee growers are amongst the 250,000 farmers that Cafe Direct works directly with. 6,549 growers to be specific. Many of these farmers are from the east of Uganda located on the slopes of Mount Elgon which is 139 km from Kampala, Uganda's capitol.

As stated in an earlier blog, "Learning from Disaster", the area around Mount Elgon had been hit with mudslides earlier this month. Emmanuel Wandega, Cafe Direct's Information and Communications Manager, reported that "There no words to adequately describe the tragedy that befell some of our farmers". A team was sent to seek out how many farmers were directly affected and what specific needs they had, the goal being to assist not only the individual but the community. In a report about this very occurrence posted on the Cafe Direct's website, it is written:

”It is in the face of this type of disaster that the Cafédirect model of having long-term relationships with growers is so important and so relevant. Unlike most other companies, we don’t buy from a Fairtrade register or from middlemen at an auction, we buy directly from the growers. So we know the people we deal with and build strong relationships with them. When disasters like this happen and their crop is destroyed or they have difficulties getting their crop to transport links, we aim to understand how best we can work in partnership to support them through their recovery process."

You, though being one person, can help, and its simple. Know where your products come from and also know that by your purchase, you are one of many that add up and in return provide a fair income to the source; the grower. Get this, Cafe Direct, along with many other great fair trade coffee companies, sells in major supermarkets, making your next trip to the grocery store a mission to encourage and empower the growers in Uganda.