This is a story about gourmet coffee and genocide. It takes place in Rwanda ...

clipped from amazingcoffee.blogspot.com Rwanda is emerging from the horrific shadow of civil war helped by burgeoning Western markets for high-quality coffee. But if Fairtrade is going to lift more blighted communities out of poverty, more of us need to wake up and drink their brands, argues Alex Renton Sunday February 25, 2007 Observer Food Monthly This story takes place in Rwanda, where in 1994 neighbour turned on neighbour and within three months nearly a million people were dead. Today, Rwanda remains Africa's most densely populated country, its people chiefly poor farmers rarely growing more than they need to feed and clothe themselves: 60 per cent of the population live on less than 55p a day. It seemed a good place to ask whether paying a bit extra in a Western supermarket for your coffee can make a real difference to lives like these. Take Claire Kampeta, a demure 30-year-old, the chief taster of the Abahuzamugambi Bakawa coffee co-operative.