About
Women's and Girl's Educational Co-op History
How Women's and Girl's Educational Co-op (WAGE Co-op) Started
When the world started opening up after COVID, a friend who is an Indian national informed us of a need among the women in her area of Andhra Pradesh. These women, who prior to COVID were making about $1 a day, no longer had any means of supporting themselves and needed vocational training.
In February 2023, the first two sewing centers opened in the villages of Jaggaiah Cheruvu and P. Thimmapuram in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Due to the success of those two centers, a new training center was added in a small village near Kakinada, which was later moved to Ramachandrapuram.
These three centers continue to operate and have instructed a total of 47 women thus far. Most of the women are from the Ramachandrapuram Church of Christ; however, women from the Muslim community have also been trained, as both the Christian and Muslim communities are experiencing increasing persecution and hostility under the current political climate in India.
In May 2025, we were contacted about an orphanage in Uganda that needed support. The children, at the time, were dealing with food insecurity, and none of them were in school, as there were not enough funds for food, much less for school.
The resources were gathered to put all 17 girls in the orphanage into a local boarding school, as the future prospects of these girls would be extremely limited without education. Shortly thereafter, we started working with two organizations—in Tanzania and Rwanda—that need help finding sponsors for vulnerable girls who require access to education.
We then realized that we needed help to meet the needs of all these children, as the boys in the Ugandan orphanage are still not in school due to lack of funds. We sought to find a way to meet the long-term needs of these children sustainably while also supporting the communities they come from.
After multiple meetings and discussions, it was decided that coffee importation to the US from these communities would be our way forward.
Our 17 girls from the Orphanage (Used with permission)
In October 2025, we made a trip to Uganda, met the 17 girls we sponsor and their school, while also establishing contacts with the local coffee producers, factories, and exporters.
Our first sale of Ugandan coffee was made on December 3rd, with several more following. On December 12th, 2025, we received official confirmation from the IRS that we are a registered 501(c)(3) organization.
What We Are Doing Now / How You Can Help
We continue to support vocational training for the women in India and the 17 orphan girls in Uganda as before, but we need help finding sponsors for all the Maasai girls (and boys from the orphanage) for their educational needs.
Women's and Girl's Educational Co-op (WAGE Co-op) coffee offering is currently growing as we anticipate more products and selections to arrive, with the hope of also receiving a line of high-mountain coffee from Rwanda shortly.
All money donated for sponsorships is tax deductible, and the list of children who need sponsorship - Donate Now >
One hundred percent of the donations given for a specific child go directly to that child. Furthermore, all coffee proceeds go to help meet the educational needs of children for whom we are unable to find sponsors.