Donatille's Story
Several years ago, we met Donatille: a vibrant woman with so much potential but, at the time, very little hope. She and her husband were struggling to provide for their family solely from the income generated from their under-producing coffee farm, encumbered by debt and unable to afford to send their children to school.
Then, in 2018, that hope started to grow. Upon hearing about an opportunity to participate in a program supporting coffee farmers, Donatille decided to join the Kula Fellowship.
For 15 months, she attended trainings, met regularly with her mentor, and learned new skills side by side with her neighbors. Towards the end of the program, she became especially inspired by the business training she attended. She put all her energy into learning how to build an effective business plan, how to strategically think through opportunities and gaps in her local market, and how to understand the best ways to create and manage a lasting and profitable business. Filled with ambition, Donatille began preparing a plan to pitch in Kula’s business plan competition.
Her hope was to create a flour milling business, the first of its kind in her community. Finally, she pitched her idea to our panel of judges, and we excitedly awarded her business investment to purchase a flour mill.
Today, the Donatille we met in 2018 is not the Donatille we see now. Her face shines as she tells us how her life has changed since graduating from the program. Through implementing what she learned in the way she cultivates her coffee farm, she has grown her farm by 37% and increased her coffee harvest threefold. Her flour milling business is continuing to thrive, generating enough income to pay back all of their debts, purchase livestock, and even send her granddaughter, Bonne Fillette, to school.
One of the things she’s most proud of is the way that the funds we invested in her business have now given way to her own investment into her son, Elysee’s business. In support of his idea of becoming a moto taxi driver, she was able to purchase a motorcycle and enroll him in a moto drivers cooperative, empowering him to create a lucrative business of his own.
