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Friends, we have 🎉☕️🏆 news!

Salomé Byenda, a woman wearing a bright yellow-and-purple dress and headscarf, addresses a crowd using a megaphone.

This is a big week for Eastern Congo Initiative. We’re officially announcing our acquisition of the Asili business model. Nespresso is releasing a new single-origin coffee grown exclusively by our partner co-ops in South Kivu. And the work we do with public and private partnerships is receiving a prestigious honor.



🎉 Asili is officially part of ECI

The Asili star, with the words, "Asili Powered by ECI"

The Asili business model is a revolutionary new way to get world-class essential services to the communities who need them. Today and every day, 120,000 people in eastern Congo trust Asili for clean water and primary health care. ECI acquired the Asili model late last year, but today we’re making it official: the whole Asili team is part of the ECI family, and we have never been so excited for the future. 


☕️ Taste Congolese coffee today

La fermière Gaudencia Mw’Hungwe goûte le café pour la première fois. Aujourd'hui, les Américains peuvent déguster le même café, cultivé uniquement par elle et les autres caféiculteurs de Minova.
Farmer Gaudencia Mw’Hungwe tastes coffee for the first time. Photos: Gerry Kahashy

In partnership with ECI and the farmers of South Kivu, Nespresso is releasing an exclusive single-origin coffee called Kahawa ya Congo, created exclusively from USDA-certified organic beans grown by our partner coffee co-ops. Nespresso is investing $1.2 million to fund the initial capital cost of Asili infrastructure in Minova, bringing clean water and high-quality healthcare to coffee farmers. 


🏆 A winning partnership

Women in Congo lead a human-centered design sprint, using colorful sticky notes.
We use human-centered design to co-create the transformative Asili business model with all our partners. Photo: Jon Atwell

One reason ECI has made such a difference over the past ten years: We’ve always believed in the power of partnership — between nonprofits, private companies, public-sector agencies, and ordinary people. We are pleased to announce that the partnership that brought Asili into the world — ECIAlightUSAIDIDEO.org, and Congolese mothers and families — has been selected as a finalist for the 2020 P3 Impact Award. Created by Concordia, the University of Virginia Darden School Institute for Business in Society, and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships, the award recognizes and honors leading public-private partnerships (P3s) that improve communities and the world. 

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