Honduras Manos de Mujer Honey

Founded in 2013, Manos de Mujer (Women's Hands) is a group of female coffee producers operating within COMSA (Café Orgánico Marcala, S.A.), an organic coffee cooperative based in Marcala, La Paz, Honduras. The group's mission is to empower female farm owners, improve living standards, and promote gender equity across coffee farms and within the larger community. These women are also part of a larger initiative of COMSA farmers diversifying their farms. Beyond growing organic, fair-trade coffee, members plant their land with fruit and vegetable gardens and raise livestock (such as chickens, pigs, and cattle) to generate steady, year-round income.

Broader Impact: Proceeds from COMSA and Manos de Mujer help support local community projects, including an international school focused on environmental and human-centric education (Finca Humana)

COMSA was founded by 60 Honduran coffee farmers who joined together with common goals: to transform their farms from conventional to organic production and to directly export their coffee. In 2001, fostered by a foundation called FUNDER, they earned their organic certification from Bio Latina and in 2006, COMSA was granted Fair Trade certification status.

In recent years, the collective has grown to well over a 1000 member farmers, focusing on economic, social, and environmental goals to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. COMSA funds many social projects including paying teachers’ salaries and purchasing school supplies.

Café Orgánico Marcala is home to an innovative experimental farm called La Fortaleza where the members come together to exchange ideas with other growers. The philosophy of COMSA’s organic vision emphasizes the “5 Ms” that are essential to maintaining healthy soil: (organic) Material, Microorganisms, Minerals, (living) Molecules, and (gray) Matter or brain power.