founder

Demissie

Demissie's interest in charity and community-building work began in the mid-1980s, when he was a founding member of the Oromo Community. He worked alongside charities and support groups to provide aid to war and drought victims in Ethiopia during the severe 1980s.

Since the 1980s, Demissie has been involved in coordinating relief and rehabilitation projects with Christian Aid, Comic Relief, Health Unlimited, CAFOD, and other charities in London. His interest in charity work began while he was studying at university in London and continued as he worked part-time in community outreach while employed by NHS hospitals.

Over time, Demissie came to realize that relief and rehabilitation alone were not enough to resolve the economic challenges faced by coffee farmers in Ethiopia. Instead, he believed that building a self-reliant economy based on cooperative associations was a crucial way to reduce poverty. Coffee is one of the world's most traded agricultural commodities, and Ethiopia is home to high-quality Arabica coffee, which has the potential to lift the country's economic prospects. However, coffee farmers often lack access to the global coffee market, preventing them from benefiting from this potential.