Sometimes I worry that my vision of an ideal company is…well…too ideal. A place where many cultures join together for the greater good of society and the environment, where the office is a mix of languages, races, and ages. And perhaps most importantly—where something delicious is always brewing nearby.

So when I stepped into the Fundación Runa office in Tena, I was pleased to find that such optimal work places do exist. Every morning starts off with a delicious cup of guayusa—preferably ishpingo-infused and that right there is enough to make each day great. I tell my friends that guayusa gets into your blood stream, and that’s definitely true. You feel this pleasant buzz all day long, without any nasty drop-off like you get with coffee.

 But I think it’s more than that. It gets into your psyche. Drinking this tea makes you think about the whole process that went into making it available. Interning with the Fundación gives you the chance to be a part of that chain, too. One special day, I was able to help a family of farmers during their guayusa harvest. I asked them, why are you growing guayusa? It pays well, and its easier work for us than harvesting cacao or coffee, they told me.

And those are just the obvious reasons. With each sale Runa makes, portions of proceeds go to a social premium fund that farmers may use towards community development projects.

This partnership is good for the environment, too. Runa buys only guayusa grown and harvested organically, without the use of harmful pesticides or fertilizers.

When you buy a product from Runa, you can feel good about what you’re consuming. And if you take the time to be part of this social movement down in Ecuador, you’ll do some good, too. What do you have to lose?

Check out www.runa.org order your Runa guayusa!

Come intern with Fundación Runa and learn firsthand about the indigenous Kichwa farmers we partner with to provide you with delicious, Amazonian guayusa. The following is a tale from Community Development intern Sara Hundt about her home stay with one such family of farmers in the community of San Pablo, outside of Tena, Ecuador.

The day begins around 6 AM in the San Pablo community. The chickens and dogs have been barking for hours. Years ago, Kichwa families would have been brewing guayusa for at least three hours by now.While this twilight ritual is less common with the younger indigenous Kichwa generation in the Napo province of Ecuador, being early risers is still part of their routine.   I keep my eyes shut for another half hour, and by the time I force myself out of bed, everyone in the family has already had breakfast and is getting ready to go to school. Whoops. 

The people here are by no means lazy. After all, as my host father Bartolo explained, if you wanted to get your food for the day, you had to start early. The men in Kichwa communities would traditionally head out for their first casería or hunt of the day by four AM to catch animals like guatusa—a type of Amazonian pig which lives in the mountainous foothills of the Andes. Animals are like humans, Bartolo explained—any later in the day and they’d be up having breakfast just like we would be.

Understanding the behavior of the animals that live alongside of them is just one of the many skills Kichwa people passed on from generation to generation. Annual doses of spicey ají to the eyes strengthened Kicha hunters’s sight, allowing them to make a second casería during the evening. And resourcefulness? Don’t even get me started. From using the leaves of local plants to collect chuntacoros (roly-poly worms—see photo below) and later use as a sort of super-oven when frying the worms for a meal, to using seeds of plants and fruits to construct beautiful artisan crafts, this community lets nothing go to waste.

To say these people are rich in culture is an understatement. From retelling colorful stories about hunting jaguars, to ancient traditions of making shikra—a bag sewn from the fibers of a plant called pita, strung with various sacred beads—the people of San Pablo are deeply connected with both the history of their people and the world around them.  In just a few days, I could confidently conclude that the Kichwa community in San Pablo is swimming in Runa spirit: if these people aren’t fully-living, I’m not sure who is.

While those that know Runa in the states know us for guayusa, in Ecuador, Runa is actively involved in other projects outside of guayusa production. Fundación Runa, the Ecuadorian counterpart of our for profit, Runa LLC, works on a number of different initiatives to help local farmers and community members. These initiatives include conducting agricultural economic research to determine fair market prices for purchasing guayusa, and working in the Colonso Forest zone to protect the land while simultaneously helping farmers supplement their income.

Another effort is focused in supporting community development. As part of our ongoing Fair Trade certification, an executive board of farmers from the communities we work with has been assembled to oversee guayusa production and work on developing the Social Premium Fund. The Social Premium Fund, an integral part of our Fair Trade certification, dictates that 15% of Runa’s profit goes directly back to the farmers for use within their communities. The executive board that has been gathered is in charge of distributing these funds to benefit the communities.

In order to investigate where the funds could have the greatest impact, we have developed a Needs Assessment survey that covers multiple topics, from nutrition and health to finances and education. Each week Runa interns go out to communities and interview available individuals who help us form a picture of their communities and their most acute needs. Developed by interns Aliana Piñeiro and Jennifer Ferguson this past summer, the Needs Assessment surveys are meant to be purely informative, and not instructional, for communities. Through the surveys we hope to provide some quantitative information to help community leaders decide how to allocate the additional income their communities now have access to.  Are there certain areas that multiple communities identify as particularly in need of support? Are certain problems isolated to certain areas or districts within the Napo region? As we continue our interviews we look forward to gathering more data and working with communities to ensure that the Social Premium Fund is as effective as possible.