Burundi Women of Turihamwe

Turihamwe Turashobora is a small investor group founded by seven women coffee producers who pooled their resources to build a wet mill in 2019. The Turihamwe washing station is located in Ngozi Province, Burundi, near the northern border with Rwanda—an area renowned for producing some of the best coffee in the country.

This coffee was initially brought to our attention by Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian through her company, JNP Coffee. Founded in 2012, JNP Coffee focuses on promoting gender equity in East Africa by educating women farmers on high-quality coffee production and providing them with leadership and financial literacy training. The company also pays premiums to women farmers, ensuring quality while promoting sustainability.

Turihamwe, meaning “together we can” in Kirundi, is Burundi's first washing station built and owned by women farmers. This facility processes coffee for women producers who are part of the Burundi chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), which is the first African chapter of the IWCA to be officially recognized as a legal entity. The Burundi chapter began with a group of eight women representing Burundi’s coffee-growing regions, as well as the transportation, exportation, and quality assessment sectors. The IWCA offers business opportunities in the coffee industry, along with social, economic, and political empowerment for women in coffee-growing communities around the world.