who we are

our story

In 2013, Bloomberg Philanthropies engaged Sustainable Growers to bring innovative training to the coffee business and had a commitment to bring smallholder farmers up the value chain. In seeking out women farmers with minimal awareness of coffee processing as part of the greater value chain, our mission became 3-part, with land from the government, infrastructure from the cooperatives, and training from Sustainable Growers. Our coffee program, designed to train women farmers from seed to sip, began with only two cooperatives, Nyampinga and Twongere Umusaruro wa Kawa. With transformative efforts reaching over 40,000 women coffee farmers with a secondary impact to over 200,000 family members in Rwanda, Sustainable Growers leveraged this demonstrated impact to expand to the Democratic Republic of Congo to over 4,500 women coffee farmers with a secondary impact to over 185,000.family members.

To nurture the untapped potential and ambitious dreams of these initial cooperative members, we developed the Relationship Coffee Women model to equip young women in the community with skills to provide extension services to farmers. This sparked an immediate transfer of knowledge and skills to many more women and community members. Sparking a domino effect to impact communities at a large scale for lasting change. To date, over 50,000 women farmers in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been enrolled in the Sustainable Growers coffee training program which helped to increase the value of their crops in the first months of training by more than 40%. Multiple beneficiaries have seen their coffee businesses grow from coffee farming to owning a coffee washing station, and direct selling in the global marketplace. Upgrading the coffee quality for women farmers has been so successful that consumers and roasters have paid above premium prices for their coffees.

Women beneficiaries have been flown all over the world to attend Specialty Coffee Association, World Coffee Expo, African Fine Coffees Association, and many other global coffee forums to participate in panel discussions and meet with buyers to negotiate trade deals. The women of TUK were featured in the Sept 2019 Edition of National Geographic Magazine.

In 2016, we established our own social enterprise brand called Question Coffee to build local demand for high-quality, specialty. coffee by the graduates of the training program. Their products are sold locally to major hotels, restaurants, and national. park in Rwanda, and now expanding pathways to be sold regionally and internationally. The Question Coffee Academy provides internationally certified barista training for youth employment opportunities. Returns from Question Coffee are directly reinvested into our training program.

Sustainable Growers Program was selected in the Best Practices projects to be showcased in Dubai Expo 2020. The Question Coffee program was also selected as one of the winning 50 development projects from around the world that are providing tangible solutions to the world's biggest challenges, to be spotlighted at the Sustainable Development Goals Best Practice Programme presented at the Dubai Expo 2020.

Partnering with governments, we see opportunities to replicate this transformation model into other high-value crops for export with a focus on transforming entrepreneurial stakeholders, mainly women, youth, and their communities, across the value chain. We will soon expand our coffee program to Tanzania with operations in the Songwe Region.

Sustainable Growers. Transforming Communities.

Christine Condo, Executive Director

Christine Condo provides overall leadership to Sustainable Growers. Over the past 16 years she dedicated herself to the transformation of lives of rural sector households through women economic development. She is an Agricultural Engineer by profession and an all round expert with over 16 years hands-on field experience in Coffee, tea and maize .
Before joining Sustainable Growers she worked with Fair Trade USA, ACDI/VOCA a USAID funded project. She later on initiated REDI Rwanda to realize her vision for women development.

Jean Aime Niyonkuru, Regional Coordinator, Eastern Province

Jean Aime oversees the implementation of all the NGO’s program activities. He has over 12 years’ experience in the coffee sector. He joined the organization as Senior Agronomist in 2014 and within 2 years was promoted to a Regional Manager position overseeing the organization’s activities in the Eastern Region of the Country for 3 years. Prior to joining the organization, he served for 6 years as a zone coffee extensionist with the National Agricultural Export Development Board working closely with farmers in the Western Province of Rwanda.He holds a Master’s Degree in Development studies, bachelor’s degree in Agri-Business & Rural Development and a diploma in Crop Production.

Richard Nuwagaba, M&E and Technology Manager

Richard leads the development and execution of systems to track and report on the impact Sustainable Growers®-Rwanda delivers to its program beneficiaries. He has a strong background in technology and management of development projects. Prior to joining Sustainable Growers, he served as a tech consultant for Vitae Homes, a California-based real estate firm. Prior to that, Richard spent seven years in technology, business analysis, and M&E roles at Grameen Foundation. Richard is an alumnus of UNITAR International University in Malaysia in Evaluation of Sustainability program, the International Institute for Local Development in Cape Town, South Africa, in Result Based M&E, and a graduate of Makerere University in Information Technology.

Joseph Mutabazi, Data Manager

Joseph is responsible for managing data collection activities, ensuring quality control of collected data, and contributing to M&E system development. He has an undergraduate degree from the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in Rural Development and Agribusiness. Joseph worked for the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda for three years in data collection projects (including the National General Census and the National Agriculture Survey) as a team leader at the district level.

Caleb Igiraneza, Director of Finance

Caleb is the accountant and office administrator responsible for maintaining, verifying, recording, and reporting the company’s financial activity. He also oversees and ensures smooth office operations. Before joining Sustainable Growers, Caleb worked in the hospitality industry and with USG-funded projects in Rwanda, including Jhpiego Corporation and Constella Futures Group. He is a graduate of School of Finance and Banking in Rwanda and is currently a CPA candidate.

Fabien Twahirwa, Regional Coodinator, Southern Province

Fabien joined our team in 2014 as Senior Agronomist, based in Nyaruguru District, before becoming the Regional Manager of Southern Province. He has 11 years of experience in the coffee industry, including nine years at the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) as a zone coffee extensionist responsible for planning and organizing coffee farming activities, developing coffee producers’ awareness of formation of cooperatives, and preventing coffee diseases and pests. He has a degree from ISTCE University.

Micheline Habineza, Acting Social Enterprise Director

As Wholesale Account Coordinator, Micheline manages and provides customer support to new and existing accounts. She coordinates and executes activities that support our key accounts along with promoting the Sustainable Growers brand in Rwanda. Micheline joined the team after spending three and a half years with the international in-flight catering company, ASL Rwanda EPZE, in Kigali as their customer liaison. She received a bachelor’s degree in Business Computing specializing in E-Marketing from APIIT in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Janvier Muyenzi, Logistics Coordinator

Janvier is responsible for the coordination of logistics at the social enterprise. He is also our senior transport coordinator/driver. Prior to joining us, Janvier was a transport coordinator at National Unity & Reconciliation Commission. Before that, he worked as a private driver at National Commission of Science and Technology, African Development Consultants under USADF. Janvier is a member of the audit committee of a cooperative of transportation called CODACE with service throughout Rwanda. He holds a certificate in Computer Hardware and Networking from Tumba College of Technology and a certificate in Motor Vehicle Mechanics from Kavumu Driving School in Nyanza (Southern Province).