School of Young Entrepreneurs
Valeria Rios, 29, speaks with the confidence of someone accustomed to speaking in community meetings and coffee fairs. Years ago, she enrolled in the School for Young Entrepreneurs, an initiative created by Solidaridad in partnership with Nestlé in Colombia. The School aims to strengthen generational renewal in agriculture by equipping rural youth with the tools to build sustainable life projects.
The School’s training program combines online courses with in-person workshops focused on leadership and business model development, while also connecting youth with mentors and potential funders. Since 2019, more than 897 young coffee farmers have participated in this initiative, 52% of them women.
In 2024, Nestlé launched the competition “Decade of the Million” to recognize innovative projects promoting sustainable coffee farming in the departments of Antioquia and Risaralda. Valeria earned first place in that competition, for demonstrating her commitment to generational renewal and strengthening coffee identity among children and young people in rural communities.
Honoring heritage through education
In June 2025, Valeria launched “My Ancestors Coffee School”, an educational initiative that combines rural education with a territorial focus, building knowledge from peasant culture and identity. The school motivates students from preschool to fifth grade to learn about the national history of this crop, environmental education and entrepreneurship. Additionally, these children are taught how to grow and process coffee.
“I do it to showcase the culture, the tradition, the heritage. The countryside has the greatest potential in the world,” said Valeria, who wore a mountain hat, a striped poncho and a leather satchel slung over her shoulder at the launch of the School. “This isn’t a costume, this is culture. This is my land, and I represent it with love and respect,” she said.
For Valeria, starting a business in a rural area also meant challenging the expectations imposed by a deeply patriarchal society. “Being a woman in the countryside is complicated. Many still believe we are only meant for the kitchen, to wait for our husbands. But I broke down barriers,” she states firmly, as she remembers the day she managed to buy her own sprayer. Before, she had to borrow or find makeshift alternatives to care for her crops. Having that tool symbolized more than just efficiency: it was tangible proof that her daily effort was paying off.
“Women in the countryside no longer wear aprons: we wear microphones, leather satchels and boots. I’ve been told, ‘How can you do that, if you’re a woman?’ But that only motivates me more. I don’t let myself be defined by those limitations.”
VALERIA RIOS
Young people renewing the future
In Mexico, young people face challenges in the agricultural sector due to a lack of financing and unprofitable traditional models. In this context, young women often struggle to be recognized as a fundamental part of the value chain, particularly when it comes to land ownership and the marketing of their product.
Nestlé’s “Jóvenes Renovando para el Futuro” provides children from coffee-growing families with opportunities to thrive on their land and build a dignified future. The project encourages parents to transfer land to their children while the parents are still active, in order to start a learning process. The project involved 23 people under 28 years old from the coffee-growing association Common Yaj Noptic in Chiapas. One of these is Fátima Ruiz Guillén, 25.
“I started in the organization little by little, willing to learn. We achieved the goals we set for ourselves. Then, I was appointed legal representative,” Fátima shares proudly.
“I’ve encountered people who disapprove of women working in coffee, but my father was never like that. On the contrary, he always supported me. He told me that the day I wanted my own plot of land, it would be there for me.”
Fátima’s grandmother also encouraged her to involve herself in the local coffee cooperative telling her that their coffee farm would eventually become hers and her siblings. She learned from her father about coffee sales and management, which allowed her to be appointed as treasurer in Metik, a group of women coffee growers within the Comon cooperative. The name means “old woman” or “great women” in Tzeltal. Founded in 2010, Metik established itself first in the Mexican market, selling in Mexico City, Monterrey and Puebla. Then, in 2024, they exported a container of organic coffee to Switzerland.
When coffee rust affected her family’s plantations, Fátima joined ‘Youth Renewing the Future’ and started renewing two hectares of coffee that now belong to her. Normally, between 7 and 10 per cent of plants are lost during a renovation, but Fátima only lost 2 per cent. She cared for her plot with great dedication and accepted the challenge of managing her own farm.
“If I could say something to my younger self, I would tell her that I am very proud of her. At that time, I didn’t know what I was going to achieve, but today, thanks to coffee, my family and my cooperative, I have done things that seemed impossible, like getting on a plane and meeting other women coffee farmers in Colombia.”
Fátima Ruiz Guillén