When we launched the “virtual shipment” campaign at the Solidarity Roast in July, we hoped to power 10 families in Northern Nicaragua with solar power, helping to get their highly sought cacao beans to market without a hitch. Since then, our partners at the Quixote Center and Green Empowerment have identified funds to provide solar panels to an additional 30 families, and help another 40 families build compact, ecological latrines. Our small campaign kept the ball rolling while our partners assembled additional pieces so that local partner CacaoNica can help many more of their nearly 400 cacao-producing members improve their cacao production and their lives. 

A Little Background on How Solar Panels Make the World Sweeter

Nicaragua cacao farmers grow the good stuff: organic, fair trade, Rainforest Alliance-certified chocolate that you see in the fancy, high-end stores in the US and Europe. But getting stuff that melts in your mouth to market from 42 rural, hard-to reach hamlets surrounding Waslala, Nicaragua is quite the endeavor. 

Every 15 days or so, a truck comes around to collect the newly grown beans, communicating by phone through WhatsApp. Coordinating the pickup is no easy task in such remote areas with few roads. Without a charged phone, producers run the risk of missing a pickup. Solar power changes everything.

That’s why, this summer, we launched a $7K “Virtual Shipment” campaign to lighten these farmer’s load. We set out to power 10 homes with solar panels. Also, with solar power at home, children don’t have to study by candlelight. Families can listen to music or watch a video without worrying about losing power and missing the next cacao pickup.

But now, our partners came through with even more funds to expand the project to around 40 families. Well done, PeaceWorks community!