Minna Impiö holds a unique position within both Mifuko company and Mifuko Trust. Together with Mari Martikainen she is the founder of Mifuko Ltd and serves as its CEO. Additionally, she is a co-founder of Mifuko Trust and serves as the organization's chairperson. Minna has the opportunity to advance the often intertwined goals of both the company and the NGO. Women's groups who weave baskets for the fair trade company Mifuko are project partners in Trust's development cooperation projects in Makueni, Kenya. Corporate responsibility and values-aligned operations are crucial for Mifuko: Fair trade forms the cornerstone of its business, and Mifuko Trust is established to strengthen the ecological, social, and economic responsibility of Mifuko company.
Multiple roles
Minna's particular expertise in Mifuko Trust stems from 15 years of experience working in Kenya, with four of those years spent living there. She has gained substantial understanding and knowledge of cooperation between Finland and Kenya. Minna's responsibility includes facilitating cooperation between the Kenyan subsidiary Punonta and Mifuko Trust's project team. She also serves as a vital link between Mifuko Trust's project team and the organization's board. Minna also supports project manager Anita Lintula in her work.
Project partners' expertise motivates Minna
Members of women's groups involved in Mifuko Trust's projects are also small-scale farmers. Minna is interested in learning more about agroforestry. Carbon sequestration in soil and remote sensing techniques applied by Soilwatch are of interest to Minna. She is also keen to delve deeper into the work of the WASH and Grow! project's partner World Agroforestry/ICRAF. Minna considers the expertise of project partners crucial to the work of the Trust: The effects of climate change are already significant in the Trust's project area near the equator, making changes in farming practices urgent. Partners' expertise is essential for training cooperation and expert support.
How does Minna sustain life?
For Minna, sustaining life strongly involves preserving and enhancing biodiversity. Agroforestry strengthens biodiversity and enriches soil. She sees the Trust's work as simultaneously increasing smallholder farmers' yields and aiding in climate change adaptation. Mifuko Trust is exploring ways to measure biodiversity development in the project area: Minna emphasizes the importance of collecting long-term data from the area so that the project's results can be examined numerically as well. Minna values the opportunity to monitor the performance of projects and see their results in rural Kenya.
