Amal Yemen: Inspiring Hope Through Coffee
By GEOFF WATTS
Calling all roasters! There is a movement afoot that I think you’ll be interested in and hope you will help support it.
Amal Yemen is a project designed to cultivate awareness about Yemeni culture and encourage people to engage with the country's population. It emerged from the realization that Yemeni farmers have been left behind in the global specialty coffee boom; you can walk into a thousand coffee shops across the world and are unlikely to find a single Yemeni coffee on offer. That's especially paradoxical in light of Yemen's historical role as both the place where coffee drinking culture began and the origin of the global coffee trade. It is especially tragic in light of the devastating humanitarian crisis that has been developing in slow motion for the past 5 years and the fact that much of the population depends on coffee for income. The project aims to change the narrative around Yemen and disrupt the psychological barriers that discourage both industry and consumers from embracing Yemeni coffee and culture. By showcasing Yemen's rich history, profound coffee traditions, and vibrant contributions in visual arts, music, and academia we hope to create a magnetism that encourages a global audience to form a different relationship with the country and its 30 million inhabitants. We want to introduce a larger audience to the intoxicating flavors and wide range of attributes found in Yemeni coffees and are pretty sure many of them will fall in love with their unique tastes.
The program design is simple:
We will engage people viscerally through the extraordinary sensory quality of Yemeni coffees, inform them about Yemen's past and present with the help of well-known journalists and scholars, and immerse them in Yemeni culture via exposure to contemporary musicians, artists, and culinary professionals. Our goal is to provide a platform for Yemeni people to connect with an international audience and create permanent, lasting relationships. Coffee is the medium we are using to bring people together, but the scope extends to all realms. The guiding theory that informs our work is that by creating a portal through which the rest of the world can get closer to the Yemeni population and its contributions to modern culture--including but not limited to coffee-- we will humanize a country that has been alienated by circumstance and create opportunity for millions.
The second component of the project is a fundraising effort to generate resources for immediate, urgent humanitarian relief. It is absurd to do work aimed at planting seeds of future opportunity while the majority of the population is facing an acute existential threat. To provide immediate support we constructed a unique framework for raising money through the event’s operation that will go directly to two active relief efforts in Yemen now: Mercy Corps and Doctors without Borders (MSF). We've engaged the international coffee community to help this effort and have already gotten an incredible response; monies raised via Raffle and Auction will complement the revenue from both the event tickets and direct donations. Our hope is that in the process of giving a global audience reason to pay attention to Yemen and inspiring them to engage with its coffee, arts, and food we will also motivate them to contribute critical financial support to ongoing relief efforts.
In short, Amal Yemen was conceived as a means of supporting the Yemeni people, both right now and in the future.
It is a grassroots effort, led by an international coalition of coffee organizations, artists, non-profit groups, and private businesses to bring people together with the specific intent of catalyzing positive outcomes in a country that has endured unbearable hardship in recent years. We are hoping for a bit of your time to assist in bringing hope to a population in crisis.
As a coffee roaster you can contribute in many different ways:
Amplify this effort and help the outreach by broadcasting through your networks. The more people who plugin, the more impact this will have.
Buy a ticket to the April 9 event, with or without the tasting package. General Admission is only $5 and all proceeds go to the relief efforts.
Join us directly by donating something of value to either the auction or the raffle. Raffle items typically range from $50-$500 in value and are things that can be purchased online. Auction items are things of unique, singular value—one of a kind, collectible, or hard to acquire. Some examples below.
Record a short video (15-45 seconds) talking about your relationship with Yemeni coffee, cuisine, or culture. What does Yemen mean to you? We will broadcast your video via social media and the Amal Yemen website.
Participate in a Global Live-stream Yemeni coffee tasting in May (details below)
Connecting us with any Yemeni friends or colleagues who want to engage.
Donating to the Fundraiser directly: Amal Yemen Fundraiser
If you have any questions or ideas about how to help, OR if you just want to talk more about the scope of the project please reach out to me directly at amalyemenevent@gmail.com. I hope you are moved enough by the idea and the goals to join us in helping to change the trajectory of a country in need and create opportunities for a population of farmers who’ve been mostly left behind throughout the growth of the third wave.
In solidarity,
Geoff
A few useful links:
Instagram: @amalyemenevent
This is a good place to get a feel for the 'vibe' of the event and its nature. We are deliberately NOT getting into the politics of the conflict and are being careful to be maximally inclusive. The humanitarian needs, the extraordinary coffee-producing communities, and the vibrant, life-affirming culture are equally important no matter what side one takes. This is about the 30 million people in Yemen and their individual welfare.
Twitter: @amalyemenevent
Auction item examples:
Original artwork
Unique or personalized coffee gear (one example: special edition Comandante
Amal Yemen grinder, not available for sale)
Experiences --- a personalized, one-on-one home online barista class. A
concert-in-your-living room via Zoom. A subscription to off-menu, specialized products.
Cup of coffee with a celebrity online.
Raffle item examples:
A 6-month home-delivery coffee subscription package
A one-time coffee bundle with some gear or merch
T-shirts and other goods
Coffee brewing equipment
Anything goes – use your imagination!
