Empower Young Lives in Sri Lanka’s Tea Plantations – Volunteer with Tea Leaf Trust

Name: Empower Young Lives in Sri Lanka’s Tea Plantations – Volunteer with Tea Leaf Trust
Brand: Tea Leaf Trust
SKU: 253127
Rating: 5 (18 reviews)

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Location

Sri Lanka
- Badulla

Length

2 to 26 weeks

Project Types

Youth Education Teaching

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Program Details

Language

English

Age Min.

Timeframe

Year Round

Pricing

Starting Price

190

Price Details

In order to keep doing what we do, we need funds, and you can help! Once you have decided you want to come and volunteer for us we ask you to accept our challenge and be a tea-picker for a day. Your family and friends can sponsor you by donating. We ask you to raise 50 pounds, or 65$, for every week you stay, with a minimum of 150 pounds (190$) and a maximum of 250 pounds (320$), although many of our volunteers are so inspired they raise much more! 100% of your contribution goes directly to the students and projects.

What's Included

Some Meals Wifi

Last Updated: Feb 27, 2025

Last Reviewed: Apr 29, 2025

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About Program

Make a life-changing impact by helping young people from Sri Lanka’s tea-picking communities gain essential skills to break the cycle of poverty. The Tea Leaf Trust provides free education, offering students a rare opportunity to learn English, build confidence, and secure better job prospects.

As a volunteer, you will:
- Assist teachers in classrooms, helping students improve their spoken and written English.
- Engage in conversations to boost confidence, communication skills, and cultural exchange.
- Support exciting school events like talent shows, business fairs, and outreach programs.
- Help former students-turned-teachers develop English proficiency and teaching skills.

Our teachers are hungry to learn - do you have skills, qualifications, or experiences you could share? This is more than volunteering - it’s a movement to empower future generations. Whether you join for two weeks or six months, your impact will be lasting. Get in touch today to apply!

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Program Highlights

Experience a Sponsored Tea Pick – 85% of our students come from tea estate families Step into the shoes of a tea picker and gain firsthand insight into the challenging work behind Sri Lanka’s tea industry..
Live Among Stunning Tea Estates – Stay in small towns nestled among rolling tea fields in Sri Lanka’s breathtaking hill country.
Be Welcomed into a Warm, Resilient Community – The kindness and hospitality of the teachers and students will leave a lasting impact.
Make a Real Difference – Help young people gain essential skills, boost their confidence, and open doors to better opportunities, breaking the cycle of poverty.
Get Involved Beyond the Classroom – From talent shows to business fairs, there are countless ways to engage and create memories.

Program Impact

Over 80% of our students live on less than $1 a day, trapped in a cycle of poverty that has lasted for generations. At Tea Leaf Trust, education is the key to breaking this cycle. By improving their English and confidence, our students gain access to better jobs, higher education, and brighter futures.

Since 2010, we have:
✔ Educated 54,345 children & young people
✔ Helped 80% of students progress to employment or further education
✔ Enabled youth alumni to support 492,162 community members
Our impact goes beyond the classroom. These young people don’t just change their own lives - they lift their families out of extreme poverty and become leaders of change within the tea estates.

As founder Tim Pare says:
"We are passionate about building a Sri Lanka where all youth have a fair start, and tea estate communities live above the poverty line with dignity.”

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Program Reviews

5.00 Rating

based on 18 reviews

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4 rating 0%
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2 rating 0%
1 rating 0%

Impact 4.95
Support 4.95
Fun 4.8
Value 5
Safety 4.8

Good for Solo Travelers, Students

Showing 17 - 18 of 18 reviews

Before I left for Sri Lanka I was excited, intrigued and a little daunted. I am not a teacher and following my last experience of teaching over 10 years ago I decided that teaching was not for me. Yet here I was in Sri Lanka, on my own, in front of twenty-five 17-25 year olds with a lesson plan in hand- aagh! However as the weeks went on I looked forward to my own classes and spending time with the students, being able to get to know them more and helping them increase in confidence. Seeing the school in action and being part of their team was incredibly special. The positivity of the students and staff is infectious and you really are filled with hope for these young people. I feel privileged and humbled to have been part of and supported this amazing charity.
During my time with TLT I supported and taught a range of classes. The key role that you have as a volunteer is to provide these young people with a listening, interested ear and a chance for them to practise conversational English.
From there it really depends on your passions and interests. We helped to implement admin systems, ran first aid workshops, proof read speeches and even taught some folk dancing!
If you are willing to learn from and experience a new culture, and in turn share some of your own - then volunteering with TLT could be the opportunity for you!

Monday morning assembly - my favourite time at TLT. Excited, happy and proud students - what more could you ask for?

The teachers, who were all once students at TLT, are some of the most kind, brave and inspiring people I have ever met.

TLT is full of strong and inspiring women who love the opportunity to speak with and listen to female volunteers.

I completed 6 months with Tea Leaf Trust in 2018 at their centre in Maskeliya. My wife and I are education and health professionals in the UK and we were looking for an opportunity to support a project with our skills, but also live alongside and learn from a vibrant culture. Having visited Sri Lanka before we knew how friendly and welcoming the people were - but the staff, students and citizens of Maskeliya surpassed this! We are still in touch with many students, staff and locals and 2 years on have also visited again.
I would wholeheartedly recommend volunteering with TLT. From our first email everything was personal and relational - the beauty of being a smaller charity whose founders are still extremely active.
Furthermore, the project is bringing real hope, skills and aspiration to a generation of young people who feel isolated and abandoned. As a volunteer you have the chance to help support these young people by listening to them, speaking English with them and teaching them about your own experiences and sharing skills. One day I sat working at the reception desk and numerous students would stop and converse, taking every opportunity to hone their skills and build their confidence.
An added bonus is that the school is based in a remote and beautiful part of the Sri Lankan highlands - largely off the tourist trail. When we weren't in school we tended to be walking around and enjoying the beauty of Maskeliya. It’s akin to the Scottish Highlands or Lake District - and the weather can sometimes be quite similar! The beauty, simplicity and friendliness of the area is staggering with mountains, waterfalls and plenty of views!
TLT wants “every person on the tea estates to realise that they are valuable members of society, who can help transform their communities into places of happiness and hope.” The positivity of the students and staff is infectious and you really are filled with hope for these young people. If you want a volunteering experience where you can really get under the skin of a culture, make new friends and share your own experiences and skills - jump in!

The town of Maskeliya is surrounded by stunning walks and lovely people.

The schools hold 4 major events throughout the year where students can exhibit their English skills and celebrate their learning - lots of fun to support as a volunteer.

The school works to build community and ethnic cohesion through a mixture of education and activity.

Staff, who were all once students at the school, make huge efforts to support and learn from volunteers. They are some of the friendliest, bravest and inspirational individuals I have ever met.

Each week students visit local government schools and teach free English classes to primary aged children. A great experience to join in with.

Volunteers have to complete a sponsored tea-pick as part of their placement. A great way to raise much needed funds and understand the challenges faced by the community.

Questions & Answers

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.

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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.

About 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...