In the Nilgiris district of southern India, only a small portion of the population is made up of tribal communities like the Paniya, Irula, Kurumba and Kota tribes. However, these tribes perform much of the labor associated with agriculture like tea. Read more...

In our prior post, A Different Cup of Tea: Empowering Workers we examined how CARE helped create Community Development Forums on tea plantations to give Sri Lankan tea workers a voice in their living and working conditions.

From those meetings at several estates, a critical need for computer education was identified. Computer centers provide an opportunity for additional education that young people can choose to improve their income in the future. But estate workers had a much lower computer literacy than other sectors of the Sri Lankan population. Read more...

Sri Lanka’s tea plantations produce a large portion of the world’s tea supply, but the workers picking the leaves are isolated economically, culturally and geographically from the rest of Sri Lanka. Many of the workers are Indian Tamil people brought over by the British to help with the tea industry. After all, it was the British who first brought tea to Sri Lanka in the 1800’s.

These workers often live and work on the same tea estate where they face challenges: poor educational access, inadequate health facilities, lack of alternative income opportunities and social stigma and discrimination. CARE first stepped in and created the Plantation Community Empowerment Project or PCEP to enhance the worker-management relationships on these estates. Read more...

Even in our modern world, some things are still best when done the old fashioned way. For example, by sticking with the ancient methods of tea harvesting, Teavana is able to procure the finest grade of tea leaves. Tea harvesting of this caliber is practically a lifestyle. At Teavana, we make it our mission to support the people and cultures that bring us the tea blends we all know and love. Read more...