Twongere Umusaruro is a women’s coffee collective that builds the power and capacities of rural women to produce and market fair trade coffee. Surrounded by the rolling, green hills of Eastern Rwanda, the women shared the process of coffee production from preparing the seedlings to harvesting the beans. This photo was taken at the processing unit of the cooperative. The women organized a coffee tasting session, where Claudia, Wana and I were told to furiously and quickly sip the coffee to sense the texture and flavor. Clearly I wasn’t a pro at the tasting and didn’t have any illuminating remarks about the flavor, except, “yup, this is coffee!”

-Rucha Chitnis