Health care
A maternity and pediatric hospital on Idjwi, and clean water for the villages around it. Both began as the Cooperative's answer to what its members were dying of; both are now run by the Foundation.
Why a hospital
Until 2020 there was almost no health care on Idjwi, and none at all for a woman whose pregnancy or delivery went wrong. Every year the Cooperative lost members in childbirth. In 2019 RWH decided to build a maternity and pediatric center, and shared the plan with its roaster partner Mozzo Coffee, whose C2C fund committed the core funding.
The building went up through the pandemic and opened in December 2020, the first of its kind on the island.
What it does
Since it opened, more than 8,000 children from farming families have been born there, as of December 2025. The hospital also provides outpatient care and treatment for other illnesses, sexual and reproductive health care, and vaccination for mothers and children.
It is run by the Foundation, and paid for by donations and by the Cooperative's coffee: part of every sale goes to the hospital.
The expansion
One thing the hospital could not do was surgery. A woman who needed a caesarean had to cross the lake. An extension with an operating theater and an intensive care unit is under construction, funded with Mozzo Coffee and Zensho Trading and by coffee sales. When it opens, the most dangerous emergencies of childbirth can be treated on the island.
Clean water
Before 2017 the villages around the washing stations took their water from the lake, for drinking, cooking and washing, and paid for it in waterborne disease and infection. Since 2017 RWH has used coffee income to build seven water pumps near the stations and the surrounding villages. More than 2,500 women draw clean water from them.