The way we work is different. This means we do more with every pound, every minute, and every ounce of passion you give us. By holding an event for 24 Hour Tea nd Coffee Break this February, you are helping people to end their own poverty. This gets the job done faster, more effectively and in a way that will last.

Joáo Dos Santos Sousa is a family farmer in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Ten years ago he worked for a landowner who only paid him a small percentage of the coffee he grew which was barely enough to help him feed his wife and children.

With the help of ActionAid and our local partner organisation (CTA) he has secured his own land and is part of a community farming programme which helps him grow everything he needs without the use of expensive fertilizers and machinery. He tells us,

"Some farmers use lots of pesticides and chemicals, but they are very expensive and pollute the local water. Everything we produce is organic and we are healthy and happy. The biggest benefit of farming like we do is that we don’t rely on external purchasing, which means we have no outgoing costs are completely self sufficient."

Joáo has also joined with the other local farmers to supply organic, fair trade coffee to a cooperative in the south. He now receives almost double the amount of money for a 60kg bag than when he sold his coffee direct to middlemen.

Dibushe Oshu Feta, from Ethiopia, relies on coffee farming as the main source of income for her family, but, as a small scale farmer, she is at the mercy of global free market forces and giant corporations who use their power to demand low prices.

Africa alone loses $2 billion a year- simply because of the government subsidies and protectionism food producers in rich countries receive.

By holding a coffee morning or tea party for 24 Hour Tea & Coffee Break you will be helping to support our work taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together.

ActionAid campaigns against the global injustices that keep farmers like Dibushe poor and wants leaders of rich countries to ensure poor countries are able to choose the best policies to end poverty. We also work directly with millions of poor people around the world. Every day we’re helping them change their own lives for the better, for good.

Here are just a few ways that the money you raise will help our work with small scale farmers around the world.