Veuves du Genocide (AVEGA), an association of widows of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The charity discovered that many of the Maraba smallholders were also members of AVEGA and could thus provide funding and support. They contacted Union Coffee Roasters (UCR), a British roasting company, whose representatives visited Maraba in 2002 with officials from the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO). This group inspected the Maraba site and granted certification, making Maraba coffee the first Rwandan cooperative to gain Fairtrade status. UCR described the coffee as containing "sparkling citrus flavours complemented by deep, sweet chocolate notes" and bought all the remaining produce from the 2002 harvest. UCR distributed its Maraba Coffee in early 2003 via Sainsbury's supermarkets, which sold the product in all 350 of its stores in the run up to that year's Red Nose Day. In 2003, the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative made US$35,000 in net profits. Of this, 70 percent was divided among the farmers at US$0.75 per kilogram provided, an amount more than three times that paid to other coffee growers in Rwanda and sufficient to pay for health care and education services which were not previously affordable. The remaining 30 percent was invested back into the cooperative and spent on buying calcium carbonate, an agricultural lime used to reduce acidity in the soil caused by run off of minerals during rainfall. Independence Beginning in 2003, PEARL deemed the operation self-sufficient and reduced financial support for the Abahuzamugambi Cooperative. The cooperative provided its growers with loans that helped improve living standards and allowed for livestock investments, affordable medical insurance, and education. A cooperative bank was opened in the village in March, enabling farmers to maintain and manage their own funds locally, rather than having to trek the long distance to Butare. In late 2004, London-based Meantime Brewing began offering a coffee beer made out of beans grown in Maraba. The drink is intended as an alcoholic iced cappuccino or digestif. The head brewer tasted coffees from around the world but decided that the hints of vanilla and chocolate in Maraba coffee made it more suitable than the nutty and bitter coffees from South America. The original beer had an alcohol content of 4 percent and the same caffeine content as coffee, and was described as having a "silky, velvety character". It was sold in larger branches of Sainsbury's and in some pubs and clubs. The beverage was one of only two