Coffee brings people together. In those moments of connection we appreciate life — and coffee — even more.
Buna Baraka is a social impact initiative connecting coffee farmers and drinkers. We bring farmers’ life stories to your table and relay our collective support back to them.
Every coffee comes with a card linking to a short video from the farmer who grew it. A small contribution is set aside for the farmers at each farm, as indicated on the back of the card.
Demo card, front and back
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Reaching back
Contributions are passed on to the associated farms. After costs, they are shared equally among the participating farmers at each farm. How the share is delivered will be agreed with each farm individually.
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Checks and records
Each farmer confirms receipt — whether by text, messaging app or a signed paper ledger, depending on what works locally. We keep records to track progress and spot problems early.
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Hear their stories
Inoka
Letty
Inoka and Letty helped with the demos and are not coffee farmers.
Meet Ron
Hi, I’m Ron Wu.
We’ve probably never met, but I suspect you and I share something in common. I look forward to weekly dinners with my parents, visiting my sister Vivian and her family when I can, and spending unhurried time with friends I’ve known for decades.
I’ve also known harder seasons: being laid off, curling up in fear and feeling lost, and lying in hospital beds wondering what life was asking of me.
I still don’t know how to make complete sense of life’s ups and downs. But I do believe many of us are in the same boat. Our circumstances may be different, but we all know something about joy, uncertainty, struggle, hope, and the need to feel connected to other people.
That is why I started Buna Baraka. Not as another charity, and not as a simple answer to a complicated world, but as a small, practical way to reconnect coffee with the people behind it.
With each cup or bag of coffee, a share of the price is set aside for the farmers who grew it. The amount may be small on its own, but when many people take part, it becomes a shared gesture of recognition and support. Through the stories on the cards and videos, I hope the farmers we meet, though far away, can remind us of something close to home.
Buna Baraka is still at the beginning. There will be unknowns, and I know it will take partners, patience, and care to build it well. Alongside this work, I serve as an Adjunct Professor at City University of Hong Kong, where I lead the Innovative and Blended Finance Program. For more than 15 years, I’ve worked with the World Bank Group, banks, and NGOs on development programs, financing, research, and policy advocacy aimed at improving people’s prosperity.
Those experiences do not guarantee success. But they have given me the skills to design this carefully, and the humility to know that it has to be built with others.
I hope you’ll join me in building Buna Baraka: a small way for us to do some good with what we have, and to remember more of what we share, through something as ordinary and loved as coffee.
FAQ
What is Buna Baraka?
Buna Baraka is an early-stage social impact initiative connecting coffee farmers and drinkers. Every coffee comes with a card linking to a short video from one of the people who grew it, and a share of the price is set aside for these farmers — a small, shared gesture of recognition and support.
In Ethiopia, “buna” means coffee, and “baraka” is the name often given to the third and final round of the traditional coffee ceremony — the round associated with blessing. Together, Buna Baraka speaks to what we hope coffee can carry: a shared blessing between the people who grow it and the people who drink it.
Who can take part?
Specialty roasters and cafés that buy coffee from farms they can name. We’re starting with a small number of European roasters who are willing to shape the pilot with us.
Is there a cost to joining?
There is no separate joining fee. The farmers’ share is embedded in the bag price. What we ask is time to work with you on fitting the cards into your product and operations.
What does it ask of my team?
Putting a card in each bag. Beyond that, we design the setup around your existing packing, fulfillment and customer workflow, as a partnership tailored to how you work.
Do I have to change where I buy my coffee?
No. Buna Baraka is designed to work with the farms you already buy from.
How do you know the share reached the farmers? And what if it doesn’t?
The pilot is designed so each farmer can confirm receipt, for example by phone or by signing the farm’s ledger. If a share is not confirmed, the intended process is to follow up with the farm and keep a record of the exception. The exact confirmation method will be agreed with each farm.
Is this a certification?
No. It is not a certification label or a third-party audit. It is a way for customers to hear from the people who grew the coffee, with a share of the price set aside for these farmers.
Curious? Drop me a few lines about who you are and what sparked your interest.
