10% sales of LatitudeSix - coffeeforcommunities go to development projects for coffee growing communities. The aim is to help provide infrastructure that will in turn enhance further development.

A really basic need that many coffee growing communities have is for access to communication. Once communities have communication they are able to access health advice, education advice, negotiate deals, contact MAF to help provide transport for people or cargo, talk to relatives in different parts of the country, etc. The telecommunications network does not cover most remote areas, and so the most effective form of communication is still the HF radio.

We are about to install an HF radio at Noru, which will benefit the extended community of about 3000 people!

Rick Velvin (CEO mafnz) was recently in PNG. He wrote...

"I travelled to the remote village of Bioko, where MAF had an HF radio installed, paid for from the funds generated by Latitudesix coffee purchases. I wanted to see first hand what impact this radio had had on the community over the last 18 months. For several months after the radio was installed, the people gathered around just to listen to other people talking. Many have never travelled further than their own valley and had little knowledge of the rest of PNG, let alone the wider world. Hearing other PNG languages, place names and things happening was a bit of a shock and a huge revelation to them.

I talked with a young mother called Anita who lived in a village 20 minutes walk below the airstrip. Just before Anita was due to give birth, things started to go badly wrong with the pregnancy which required urgent intervention. As there are no medical facilities in the area at all, a radio call was made through CRMF (Christian Radio & Missionary Fellowship) for medical advice. A doctor was able to talk directly to Anita without her having to walk or be carried for 5 hours to the nearest radio. In a short time the MAF base in Goroka was contacted, vital weather information was passed to the pilot and a plane despatched. As you can see from the photo, mum and the baby are well and the community has been spared the grief of what could have been another two deaths.

I was also introduced to eleven other people, ranging in age from a young child to an elderly man, all who had been able to receive timely medical attention simply because they could now communicate with others easily when faced with a need for help.

THANK YOU for continuing to buy LatitudeSix coffee and enabling us to continue helping the people of PNG.