Coffee is a popular beverage that no matter where we look, we often see familiar images of people around us holding dark brown beverages, both hot and cold, in their hands.
Omkoi District, Chiang Mai Province is one of the areas that is suitable for growing Arabica coffee. With a topography that is 800-1,200 meters above sea level and a suitable amount of rainfall, as well as fertile soil and cool weather all year round, “Omkoi Coffee” is another name that coffee lovers often hear.
Mr. Wichitpol Meekaew, an expert teacher, recalled the beginning of the project, saying , “With the way of life of the Omkoi community, it is an agricultural community. The villagers do various types of agriculture, including growing coffee. However, in the past, due to the lack of knowledge in caring for coffee trees and improper harvesting, the coffee beans were of poor quality and could not be sold at a good price, and were not worth the transportation cost. As a result, coffee farmers abandoned their coffee trees to take care of other agricultural products. However, we did not think that way. We saw that coffee would be a good opportunity to help conserve the forest, create income and a career. That is the starting point of Yang Pao Coffee today.”
With the common awareness that poverty is one of the obstacles to children’s development opportunities , the Supanimit Foundation, Omkoi Development Project Area, Chiang Mai Province, and schools in the project area have worked together to solve the cycle of poverty, allowing vulnerable children to achieve their full potential by implementing the “Youth Training Project on Agricultural Skills in Coffee Cultivation Schools” to provide financial support and develop vocational skills in coffee cultivation and processing, supported by the Omkoi Development Learning Center under the Royal Initiative, who provided knowledge from cultivation, care, harvesting, to processing for sale.
Yangpao Cafe and Yangpao Coffee are products of the project. In addition to enhancing students’ skills and generating income while studying, the project also promotes knowledge to parents about growing coffee in a way that preserves nature, maintaining coffee trees, and harvesting products, including purchasing coffee beans to provide income to students’ families. In addition, the school has also divided income from coffee sales to set up a fund to help students who are good students but poor, which is managed in the form of a committee with representatives from teachers and students participating in considering the use of the fund.
“I feel very happy to have the opportunity to join the coffee making and beverage training. Now I can make coffee and many beverages. In the future, I have a dream to invest in opening my own small coffee shop. I am very grateful to the Supanimit Foundation for giving me the opportunity and promoting my vocational skills. Thank you very much,” said 14-year-old Boon Sita, a student representative, with a smile.
