By Wendy Anders

Kristin Van Busum set off on a Fulbright Fellowship after leaving a think-tank job in Boston to help small-scale coffee growers in Nicaragua enter the global coffee market and improve their quality of life, reported USA Today’s network media the IndyStar yesterday.

After the project failed due to the complicated dynamics surrounding local coffee production and marketing, Van Busum, an Indianapolis native turned to the coffee worker’s children where she felt she could have a positive impact.

“Children often are left at home while their parents work in the fields, Van Busum said. Instead of going to school, they’re tasked with taking care of siblings, doing chores and preparing food,” reported the Indiana-based news outlet.

“Even if there is a school structure, there is no good teaching in the community,” she continued

She put her efforts into founding Project Alianza in 2014. The nonprofit organization has opened two schools on coffee plantations in Nicaragua, and teaches about 300 children a year. They aim to increase their work to establish 10 schools, and eventually move beyond Nicaragua to other coffee producing countries in Central America.

“They all need access to school,” Van Busum said. “Their families earn like $3 a day. There are incredibly low resources, and they don’t have much of anything.”

Children are in desperate need of education. They suffer and are trapped in poverty because they’re never formally educated, said Rick Peyser, a Project Alianza board member with decades in the coffee industry including working for Keurig Green Mountain.

“It’s a gift that will ultimately lift that child, that child’s family and the country up,” Peyser said. “Supporting educational opportunity is a way to lift many areas out of poverty. It takes a long time.”

Van Busum has received support in the Indianapolis community for her work. Stephen Hall, co-founder of Tinker Coffee Co., said he has thrown fundraisers for Project Alianza because he supports its mission, reported the IndyStar

To donate to Project Alianza, visit http://www.projectalianza.org/take-action. On the website interted businesses can explore partnership opportunities with the project