MISSION STATEMENT HISTORY COFFEE FARMS AND SUPPLY COFFEE PROCESSING STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS MEMBERS AND MEMBERSHIP BOARD MEMBERS PHOTO GALLERY OF TRADITIONAL FARMERS HISTORY OF SIERRA LEONE

PEJE-WEST COFFEE FARMERS CO-OPERATIVE: Traditional coffee farmers struggling to rebuild their villages after a decade of rebel war in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

About Us PWCFC is comprised of families of traditional farmers. We inherited our methods of growing rice, coffee, and cocoa from our forefathers. We grow everything organically because it is cheaper and our land is fertile. We respect mother Earth and her husband, the sky, who sends down the rain to water our crops. We celebrate and pay respect to these forces and their creator, Ngewo-wa in a ritual every harvest. We perform rain dances to the beat of drums to induce the sky to water our crops. Our farmlands and forests are shared with monkeys, baboons, deer and other niches. We were always taught by our elders to take care of our family lands for generations yet to come. The Mende people prefer agriculture to mining. My grandma would say, "ba lee haka kokioma na be dowui." Translated, this means, never go digging for something that you did not hide (like diamonds). For if you don't find what you're looking for, you may end up with holes in the ground and no place to grow your crops.

How to Contact Us

Dr. Frank Kosia 2C Decker Lane Lumbley, Freetown, Sierra Leone West Africa email: fkosia@yahoo.com

Braima Moiwai P.O. Box 2433 Durham, NC 27701 USA email: bmoiwai[at]yahoo.com web site: www.braima.com

Philip Bona Freiburg/Germany Oltmannsstr 10 D-79100 Freiburg. GERMANY email: philip.bona[at]yahoo.com Phone: +49 761 1374117 Mobile: +49 1727674237 web site: Afrika-Forum.org

P.C Mustapha Gebeh ll Peje-West Chiefdom Bunumbu, Kailahun District Sierra Leone West Africa

How to Contribute. All contributions are tax-deductible. Tax credit # (by request) Please contact Braima Moiwai. Send checks to Peje West Coffee Farmers Co-operativec/o Braima Moiwai, P.O. Box 2433, Durham, NC 27701 We also welcome donations in building materials and cheap or donated road building machinery such as tractors, trucks, D-8 Bulldozers, and 4x4 Pickup Trucks. Contact: Braima Moiwai P.O. Box 2433 Durham, NC 27715 email: bmoiwai[at]yahoo.com

FOUNDING MEMBERS OF PWCFC

The Peje-West Coffee Farmer Cooperative (PWCFC) was founded in 2003 by Philip Bona and Braima Moiwai along with the Paramount Chief (PC) Mustapha Gebeh IV, and the elders/local chiefs in Peje-West Chiefdom in Kailahun District.
In 2005, Braima Moiwai and Philip Bona registered PWCFC with the Government of Sierra Leone, as a produce exporting Coop.

For the past 4 years, Philip Bona has served as a PWCFC representative and advocate in the registration and certification of PWCFC with Fair Trade Organization (FLO_CERT) as well as with recruiting coffee merchants in Germany and the UK as potential brokers for PWCFC in the global market. Philip Bona has continued to serve on the Board as an active PWCFC advocate abroad, educating, publicizing and advertising coffee samples to merchants and roasters in Germany and the UK.

Braima Moiwai serves as PWCFC's Outreach Personnel both National and International and PWCFC representative in the USA. He recruits potential buyers abroad as well as educating local farmers about the "wash coffee" processing method that is different from the traditional processing method. Braima Moiwai is currently overseeing the construction of a PWCFC produce warehouse in Bunumbu prior to the beginning of exporting planned for 2011.

Philip Bona and Braima Moiwai are friends from childhood and they were lucky to have escaped the decade long civil war in the 1990s. Philip Bona migrated to Germany shortly after Braima Moiwai left for United States in 1986. They were both heartbroken when the war began in 1991 and they lost many of their loved ones. After ten years of war and destruction, Philip Bona and Braima Moiwai went back home in 2001 to give a proper burial to their dead, and began working with elders to rebuild their devastated communities.

In the last 8 years, Philip Bona and Braima Moiwai have taken leadership roles and following in the footsteps of parents who were traditional leaders. They have continued to send used textbooks and stationeries to local primary schools and supporting the local weaving group for women "Mu gama govahun weavers." (Let's go back to the past).