“Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on half the world.” – Martin Luther King

Each shot of espresso requires around 80 beans to make. But have you ever wondered how those beans make it from the field to your cup?

Each bean has to be grown, picked, dried, bagged, shipped, roasted, ground and brewed by a range of people. Around the world, a million beans travel a thousand journeys through hundreds of pairs of hands for your perfect brew.

Here’s the story of just one part of that journey.

Cosmer Ramos lives with his family in a mountainous region between Mexico and Guatemala.

Cosmer with his dad

Santo Domingo

His family have been coffee farmers for many years.

Father and son in Mexico

Each day, Cosmer and his father, Rogelio, walk into the jungle where they keep a small coffee plantation that produces Arabica beans.

Coffee beans drying

When the coffee berries are in season, they are handpicked as they ripen and spread out to dry in the sun.

The whole family help in the drying, bagging and roasting process.

Cosmer's family

Many boys Cosmer’s age have to forego school and start work early because their families can’t afford to educate them.

But Cosmer is sponsored through Compassion. He attends school, gets healthy meals from his Compassion project and receives letters from his sponsor, encouraging him and building him up.

Compassion project meal

Compassion sponsor letter

Cosmer is fortunate – he’s able to learn the coffee farming skills that have been passed down his family for generations, but he’s also receiving a valuable education through Compassion, enabling him to reach his full potential as he grows up.  

Mexican Compassion project

Could you sponsor a child like Cosmer and help them reach their full potential? Every child sponsored is another child given the opportunity to seek a different future – one free from poverty.