Silvia's story....
Silvia Roblero Torres (pictured right) works as coordinator of women’s projects in CESMACH, as well as being a member of the technical assistance team.
As a child during school holidays Silvia enjoyed working with her family on their farm. Mostly she helped washing the coffee, but what she really liked was helping to pick the coffee.
Silvia went on to university in the north of Mexico near Monterrey to study agronomy. This is a very exceptional career, as most girls of her age from the same village only went as far as primary school.
“So when I finished University I wanted to come back. I always had on my mind to come back to Chiapas and help my people. I checked with some governmental organisations, but the work done by a producer organisation seemed more interesting to me than to work for the government, because the organisation is much closer to the farmers. It was CESMACH that I first asked for a job, and I was lucky. I started to work in CESMACH in September 2003. My role would be to start working with the wives of the members. And then I asked if there would be a possibility to also work in the technical production area, because I saw that they had a lot of work and I could help in some of the tasks. And I am still working in those two positions.”
Silvia enjoys working for CESMACH because farmers are important to the organisation, as well as the coffee. “You can see this for instance in providing a better price to the members, to be organised together and look for projects together in the training that is given to the members. That is something other companies don’t give to farmers. In that sense, I really appreciate the work done by Cafédirect. They also are interested in the producer, contrary to other companies that are only interested in the product. Cafédirect also want to visit the farmers, to understand how they live, in which conditions they live, where their lands are. They want to know who produces the coffee they buy, and I really like that.”