Created in 2006, The Qawale project has been built to assist and empower small and medium producers.

The project has been created by Vides58, a coffee structure in Huehuetenango with decades of experience in specialty coffee. They share knowledge with the producers and provide technical support on the field about practices and processing. Because the base of the program is built around the Rainforest Alliance certification, the activities are guided by the RFA model and focus on increasing native tree cover, and soil cover.

The producers of the project also receive social benefits such as medical assistance and have access to recreational and cultural activities.

The program covers initially the regions around La Libertad in Huehuetenango. It started with a handful of producers but due to its success, the project extended to Rabinal and Oriente.

Most of the producers process their coffees themselves on their farms. This requires a rigorous follow-up of the processing techniques during the harvest in order to obtain an homogeneous quality. The producers all received Q-process trainings and have followed similar practices to develop this lot.

The producers are also learning how to develop new activities in their farms, how to diversify their production and how to take care of the natural resources, because these region of Guatemala is catalogued as a high risk of deforestation and high risk of get affected by climate change.

All of the coffee producers from Qawale have been verified as free risk zones.