Tea Leaf Trust logo words with green tea leaf growing out of them

Tea Leaf Trust

Why choose Tea Leaf Trust?

Tea.. it's always there for you. However, people from tea-estate communities within Sri Lanka face many problems on a daily basis; low wages, gender inequality, alcohol and substance abuse, violence against women and suicide rates are very high. Tea Leaf Trust offers educational programs to children and young adults from these communities. We aim to develop their emotional health, self-worth and English skills as to offer them the opportunity to escape the poverty cycle. We are committed to help effect social transformation in tea estate communities by developing educated professional and empowered young people. They will be enabled to lead social transformation within tea plantation communities.

Founded
2009

Reviews

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Samantha
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Tea Leaf Trust Volunteering

I had such a fantastic experience volunteering at Tea Leaf Trust. Everyone I came across was very friendly and cared deeply about the project. Hearing the teachers and students personal stories and the impact that Tea Leaf has had on their lives was very heart warming. Tea Leaf Trust is always thinking about new ways they can try to support the community and students are an active part of this process. All the staff made a huge effort to make me feel welcome by inviting me to their homes and showing me around. I was lucky enough to attend the students graduation and my homestay host and the teachers lent me traditional clothes, jewellery and dressed me on the day. All memories I certainly will never forget!

What was your funniest moment?
The school dance was so much fun and also hilarious! All the student were keen to show me their dance moves and I sweated in that hall for 2 hours straight. The students also performed karaoke and it was very moving to feel the love in the room.
Pros
  • Friendly and welcoming staff, homestay and students
  • Beautiful setting
  • Adams peak!
Cons
  • wish I could have had more time there
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Tharaka
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Set up a partnership and had a great experience supporting Tea Leaf Trust with the development of their emotional health curriculum!!

My name is Tharaka and I'm the founder of Project Roots - I came to Tea Leaf Trust (TLT) with Sammy (another volunteer) with the intention to establish a partnership with TLT while supporting the improvement of the emotional health curriculum (scope of work agreed for Sammy). Now being of Sri Lankan origin but growing up in New Zealand, I never got much of a chance to explore the uphill country region, so this was a perfect chance to really immerse myself! TLT brings such a warm and genuine atmosphere at the schools, we had the opportunity to work with the Maskeliya team. We felt very welcomed and were invited to participate in many events such as the students annual graduation. Two weeks was never going to be enough time but we managed to identity gaps based on the current emotional health curriculum and provide recommendations, To ensure sustainability of the engagement, we will be arranging a virtual workshop to train the teachers on the new improvements before the curriculum is taught. The staff culture and planning was phenomenal and it was evident from the achievement of the students at graduation, seeing how far they have come in just one year was incredible! We had the chance to experience the Tea Pick, which enabled us to understand how difficult it was to pluck 18kg of tea leaves per day - great way to raise awareness and fundraise for a needed cause. I will need to visit again to gain a full appreciation for the holistic course TLT provide but I have no doubt I will be connecting future volunteers here. Hoping to see our partnership flourish, thank you Tea Leaf Trust and for all the generational impact you make for the tea estate communities!

What was your funniest moment?
Funniest moment would have to be the DJ party with the students, we danced for at least 3 hours straight! Such a great time and really bonded with the students, great to see everyone so confident and bringing the good vibes!
Pros
  • Superb hospitality provided by the staff and accommodation provider
  • Accommodation being so close tot he school (only 3 min walk)
  • Having a positive / gratitude moment every morning at the staff meeting - great vibes
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Shenaia
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Nuwaraeliya TLT Volunteer experience

I did my volunteer experience for two weeks with TLT. I was lucky enough to experience the speech conference in both Maskeliya and Nuwaraeliya. The teachers and team are incredible- they are so welcoming and it was such an eye opening experience. It was a privilege to experience the full circle of students becoming teachers while also learning about the social issues TLT is looking to solve. I highly recommend volunteering at TLT and the accommodation spots recommended were so safe. I stayed with Krishan at Sky Haven and they made me feel part of their family. It was so lovely.

What was your funniest moment?
Every single day in the staff room was so fun - bonding with the teachers, sharing meals and tea to get to know eachother better.
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Anja
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing experience!

I had a truly wonderful experience at Tea Leaf Trust. All the staff are incredibly passionate about their work, creating a welcoming and inspiring atmosphere. They run impactful and sustainable projects, such as those focused on women’s empowerment, which help provide skills and confidence for a better future, as well as the cookstove project, which supports environmental sustainability and improves daily life for local communities.

I learned so much during my time there and gained valuable insight into the challenges these communities face, as well as the meaningful solutions being implemented. This experience has definitely changed the way I see things and inspired me to get more involved in similar initiatives.

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to be part of this amazing work!

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Huey Yun
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Tea Leaf Trust is more than just a school!

I have been volunteering in Maskeliya for 3 weeks. Tea Leaf Trust mainly focuses on the educational aspects, but there are several projects run by TLT that uplift the community. For example, they organise workshops and help women workers on the tea estates to set up their own businesses. And the other interesting project is the cookstove, which not only helps the community but also protects the earth. I am so grateful to volunteer here, it is hard to express my feelings in words. Once you experience volunteering, you will understand exactly how I feel!

Programs

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Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Why did you choose this program?

I chose this programme because a teacher who worked for me when I was a Primary School Headteacher got involved with the charity and he recommended it to me as something I might like to get involved in when I retired. It suited me because I was keen to use my experience in education to support a charity in a third-world country.

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

The Tea Leaf Trust has a designated Volunteer Co-ordinator who works with any volunteer who expresses an interest in helping with the charity. This included a couple of initial telephone conversations and then lots of further advice once both parties agreed it was a suitable placement. I felt very well-supported in terms of my preparation for the experience.

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

I think the main piece of advice I would give is to expect the unexpected!

In the same way that it is very difficult to explain to someone what a huge impact having a child will have on your life, it is hard to explain just how life-transforming supporting a charity in a third-world country can be. It is certainly not something to enter into lightly, but, if you go into it very well-prepared, it could be one of the most amazing experiences you will ever have in your life.

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

There was no average day/week for me in the work I did with Tea Leaf Vision, as it was so varied across the 3 months I spent working for them.

I had two 'home-bases' in Nuwara Eliya and Maskeliya, where I was attached to the Tea Leaf Vision Schools there, but I also spent some time travelling around Sri Lanka, visiting Sri Lanka Unites Regional Youth Reconciliation Centres, as Tea Leaf Vision provided many of the teachers working in those centres. The fact that it was so varied made it all the more enjoyable for me, but it also meant that I had to be extremely flexible, as I was never quite sure exactly what I would be doing from one day to the next.

I didn't find that particularly challenging, as being a Headteacher in a Primary School was also never the same from one day to the next, so, hopefully, I entered into the experience as a very adaptable, flexible person. Had I not been like this, I think I might have found it quite daunting at times.

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

I think my biggest fear was that I would not be as much use to the Tea Leaf Trust as I hoped I would be. As a Primary School practitioner all my working life, I knew I would be working with 18-24-year-old students learning English, so I was apprehensive about how my skill-set would adapt to the situation out there. However, my reservations were very quickly dispelled as I found out that my skills were very generic and ideally suited to the tasks I was given once I was out there.

My other big concern was how I would adapt to living in an extremely different culture, but I was delighted to find out how much I not only got used to living in a very different culture but actually embraced it and began to learn a great deal from it too. Alternative cultures are not better or worse and should not be treated as such; they are just very different and there is so much that we can learn from and benefit from in a new culture. I loved that aspect of being in Sri Lanka and I felt it had a huge impact on me, to the extent that I think I came back a different person.

Is there any other advice for prospective travelers?

I think prospective travelers want to know a variety of things, depending on their previous experience of working abroad in a very different culture. For someone like me, who had never lived or worked abroad in a third-world country, I had very little idea of what to expect, so the thing that made the biggest difference to me was to make sure that I was as well-prepared beforehand as I could be. Taking on board the advice of the charity you are supporting is crucial, as is speaking to as many people as you can who have actually spent time in the country you are going to.

I think, given my time again, I would have read up even more about Sri Lanka so that I was more aware of the political and social context of what I was entering into, as this would have helped me to understand the local people more quickly.