Jabal Shada, Baha Region, Saudi Arabia –
At a time when ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) strategies are seeking renewed meaning, Sara Sawaf offers an approach that is rooted, human-centered, and coherent. As the founder and CEO of Coucou International Entertainment Inc. (CIE), she gives the word “responsibility” a deeply personal resonance — one of preserved connection, transmitted gestures, and living memory.
A Rooted ESG Approach
For Sara Sawaf, the E in Environmental begins with attention to the land. Through her project Gahwa Time, under CIE umbrella, she champions manual coffee cultivation, promotes low-impact farming methods, and invites a form of slow tourism that honors both nature and community. The coffee grown in the highlands of Jabal Shada, in the Baha region, becomes a symbol of joyful restraint — grounded in living soil and ancestral care.
The S in Social is where Gahwa Time truly expands in both depth and dimension. It creates a safe and intentional space where women in leadership — often coming from positions of privilege — are invited to slow down, reconnect, and grow alongside one another. At the same time, these encounters are designed to directly support and uplift women working in agriculture, craft, and traditional livelihoods, creating meaningful bridges across class, geography, and experience. The result is a shared circle of dignity — one where each woman, whether planting, roasting, leading, or listening, contributes to a regenerative social fabric.
Governance is expressed through a clear ethos: authenticity, respect for local rhythm, and alignment between word and deed. At Coucou International Entertainment Inc., depth is valued over scale, and integrity over trend.
Crucially, it is through partnerships and collaborations with other impact-driven CEOs and organizations — such as CQFD LAB — that Sawaf is able to scale this impact. By co-developing projects rooted in quality, sustainability, and cultural relevance, she ensures that Gahwa Time is not only locally meaningful, but globally aligned with systemic transformation.
A Living Network of Rooted Women
What sets Sara Sawaf apart is her ability to connect women across the world who — like those of Jabal Shada — preserve their ties to land, story, and the dignity of meaningful action. This global weaving is not theoretical. It is alive, embodied, and intentional.
• In Scotland, she exchanges with guardians of botanical knowledge and oral traditions in the Highlands.
• In India, she collaborates with women from rural Ayurvedic cooperatives preserving ancestral techniques.
• In the Maghreb, she supports initiatives centered on breadmaking and the artisanal production of millennia-old oils, led by women in remote communities.
• With Indigenous communities in Canada, she opens dialogues on the safeguarding of sacred rituals.
• In the Philippines and Malaysia, she draws inspiration from women-led food resilience programs in meaning-rich growing regions.
• In South Korea, she explores connections between hanok living, fermentation, and the meditative dimension of daily gestures.
• In Vietnam, she engages with women artisans in the Central Highlands working with bamboo, natural dyes, and wild coffee harvesting.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, she supports women reviving forgotten seeds and localized agricultural knowledge.
Across all these places, a shared thread emerges: patience, humility, silent transmission, and unscripted resilience. Sara doesn’t unite them through a central platform — she honors the invisible convergences already at work.
An Approach Aligned with the SDGs
Sara’s work aligns naturally with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including:
• SDG 5 – Gender Equality: elevating the work of rural women
• SDG 8 – Decent Work: empowering local and artisanal economic circuits
• SDG 11 – Sustainable Communities: reconnecting people, land, and stories
• SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption: ethical production and the value of slowness
• SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals: advancing cultural transmission through global collaboration
A Reconnection to the Living World
Gahwa Time, a project of Coucou International Entertainment, in its simplest form, offers a rare experience: to gather around a cup of coffee, in a remote and storied place, with women who have kept the memory of the land alive. Jabal Shada, with its ancient caves and untouched terraces, becomes a regenerative destination — not through infrastructure, but through silence, landscape, and the wisdom of those who inhabit it.
Sara Sawaf doesn’t theorize change — she lives it. With nuance and fidelity to her origin, her approach does not aim to impress, but to heal — gently, and in depth.
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