Coffee transformed her life — and the lives of women from her village in Uganda

toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR

MBALE, eastern Uganda — Meridah Nandudu brews a medium roast coffee at the headquarters of Bayaaya Specialty Coffee, a company she founded and runs.

"Medium roast is my favorite," she says, taking a deep inhale of her full cup. "It brings out the caramels, the body of the coffee, the chocolate flavors."

But coffee is more than just a drink to her. It's a critical part of her life story and her work to improve the lives of women in her community.

But she could never have imagined that coffee would play a role in charting her own course.

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A daughter of coffee farmers

Nandudu grew up in the remote village of Bugibulungu, near the border with Kenya, on a hill lush with banana and arabica coffee trees. Her parents and grandparents were coffee farmers.

But she was not interested in following in their footsteps.

Part of that was due to the gender dynamics that played out in front of her: In this part of Uganda, coffee is seen as a man's thing, including producing it, selling it and consuming it. Women are reluctant to even drink coffee because there is a belief that it will affect their fertility. But they do play an invisible and thankless role in the industry: They help grow the beans.

Based on what she had seen growing up, Nandudu also didn't think there was a lot of money to be made from coffee.

"We're basically involved in the field work, like you're going to the farm with your mother — you're plantin