Sri Lankan Women of Tea Programme

Five per cent of global tea production originates from Sri Lanka, where the tea industry employs nearly one million people and contributes $1.5 billion to the country’s economy.

The context

Five per cent of global tea production originates from Sri Lanka, where the tea industry employs nearly one million people and contributes $1.5 billion to the country’s economy.

Poor diets and malnutrition are a big concern on tea estates with 35% of children below the age of five reported as being under-developed. Mothers also tend to be under weight and anaemia rates are high due to poor nutrition.

Credit: Abbie Trayler-Smith/Panos

Our aims

The Ethical Tea Partnership is working with The Republic of Tea in Sri Lanka to improve the nutrition and health of women, men and children on tea estates. We work with the PALM foundation, a community development organisation with expertise in delivering nutrition programmes for communities in Sri Lanka.

Credit: Abbie Trayler-Smith/Panos

Our impact

In the first year of our programme we’ve worked with over 11,000 people to:

  • Improve women’s health through more varied diets
  • Provide training on mother and child nutrition
  • Establish community kitchens for tea estate residents and workers giving them access to nutritious affordable food
  • Construct and repair toilets.

Kitchen gardens

We are working with tea communities to set up kitchen gardens. We have provided training and seeds to tea workers to enable them to set up their own kitchen gardens on their plots at home.

Since the start of the programme, we have seen the number of people setting up their own kitchen gardens increase by 35%. Nearly 70% of those taking part in our programme who have garden plots have now established their own kitchen gardens at home.

Hear from Mummorothy

Credit: Abbie Trayler-Smith/Panos

Working on her kitchen garden, tea estate worker Mummorthy says: 

“Growing our own food really helps as we don’t need to buy everything in the shops. We get about 75% of what we need from the garden”.

Hear from Seethaiama

Seethaiama in her kitchen garden

Talking about her kitchen garden, tea worker Seethaiama says:

“I’ve been gardening for about two years now. It’s not too hard and we save money because we don’t need to buy vegetables. This is healthier… My family likes this new way of cooking”.

Hear from Ramaya

Community kitchens

Community kitchens are an innovative new initiative, offering safe, nutritious meals to tea workers at a low cost. For the first time, these kitchens are located within the grounds of the tea estates so that they are easier for workers to access.

Find out more

Read more about the impact of our programme here.

For Human Rights Day 2018, we highlighted the work we’re doing to ensure that women in Sri Lankan tea estates can access good quality foods to support well-balanced diets. Hear from these women here.

Read more about the innovative programmes ETP is running in Sri Lanka to change people’s lives.

Share

Inside this article...

Discover more

Our UNICEF Partnership: supporting women and young people in India

India produces over a fifth of the world’s tea and Indian tea is crucial to most tea blends. Two million people work in the Indian tea industry – the majority on tea estates. Assam is a key tea growing region in the North East of India, and nearly 20% of its population live and work in tea communities.

Read more

Empowering Sri Lanka’s tea communities

Close to a million people in Sri Lanka work in the tea industry. Tea estates were established during colonial times back in the 1800s, with a Tamil workforce. Many of the traditional structures and separation between workers and management have remained in place, despite changes to local ownership.

Read more

Innovative ways of working in Sri Lanka’s tea estates

In Sri Lanka, tea is hand-picked and most of the tea workforce is made up of tea pluckers – a role held predominantly by women. Increasing opportunities to secure better incomes outside the tea industry means there is a shortage of tea workers.

Read more