Coffee anyone?

We’re thrilled to announce that Watipa has been awarded a Scoping and Business Development grant from the DICE Fund of the British Council. We will be developing “Equal Grounds” – an exciting social enterprise and community development project involving coffee – with Rumah Cemara in Bandung, Indonesia. The DICE Fund is part of a wider two year programme, set up to tackle entrenched issues of unemployment and unequal economic growth in five emerging economies (Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt and Brazil) and the UK.

Equal Grounds will cultivate social entrepreneurship and creative communication with disadvantaged young people in Bandung to develop their employability skills, boost local and ethical coffee production, and stimulate the local job market. We will be looking at all stages of coffee production from seed to bean to mouth. Or in other words, a holistic approach that will look at growing, farming, producing, marketing, serving and drinking coffee. Continue reading “Coffee anyone?”

Do you know what a Samajika looks like?

Samajika is a word from Sri Lanka, in Sinhala, that translates into English meaning equal members. At Watipa we refer to the founding members of Watipa as Samajikas, embracing the diversity of the cultural and geographical reach of Watipa as well as a commitment to our egalitarian and collaborative way of working.

You can meet the Watipa Samajikas by watching short profile films on Watipa’s YouTube channel – and you can read more about the skills and experience of Samajikas on our website.

The founders of Watipa are Michelle Aitken, Karin Alexander, Maureen Leah Chirwa, Valerie Delpech, Taghreed El Hajj, Kathy Lowndes, Saku Mapa, Lucy Stackpool-Moore and Margaret Wazakili.

As you can see, the Watipa Samajikas all look very different!