Sri Lanka. No doubt a beautiful country. The lowlands are surrounded by the blue waters of the Indian Ocean, rhythmically rolling onto the white sandy beaches of the island.
The central highlands, a jungle of green, where a cool temperate climate offers a perfect environment for Sri Lanka’s billion-dollar-a-year tea industry. Lush tea plantations are scattered throughout the picturesque scenery.
Nestled within the highlands is the city of Nuwara Eliya, one of the premium tea-growing areas of the world. High above the clamor of the lowlands, the verdant landscape feels as if time has stood still.
In many ways, it has for centuries been the tea plantations’ practice to count on the quiet exploitation of the Tamil minority group, members of the lowest caste system in Sri Lanka, to pick tea leaves. Isolated in the remote mountainous areas of Sri Lanka, it is the Tamil women who make up the workforce that keep this industry flowing.
The life of a tea picker is hard; long days combined with squalid living conditions make it clear why Tamil Indian laborers were imported into the country so long ago to fill such jobs. Jobs locals refused to take.
Upon a wall of a dilapidated shack in a plantation housing project, eight simple words summarize generations of thought for tea pickers here in Nuwara Eliya: “Life is a pain…endure is the answer.”
A place with little hope, yet the slight hope of today is more than they imagined a decade ago.
She looks down at her calloused hands. Her day picking tea leaves having just ended, she winces at the pain as she lifts her bag of leaves and gives them to the field manager.
Ahead is a hard hour hike home over the hill, where she will busy herself with chores, fetch water, cook dinner for her family, and then spend what little time remains with her reason for living: her beautiful baby daughter.
Tears well up in her eyes as she honestly wonders if this is as good as it gets.
Every day is the same bad dream, the same hell. Day in. Day out. She wakes up before dawn and heads to the tea fields, plucking tea until dusk, before taking the long hike home. Praying for no harassment, praying for a peaceful night. She understands this is the fate of a Tamil woman on a tea plantation: a woman with little power, a woman with little control of her life.
Sadness hits when she realizes if her young daughter is lucky enough, she may have at best a similar fate. “If she is lucky…” Quickly, she erases any such negative thought from her mind.
As a member of the Tamil minority group working in a male-dominated culture, there are simply few options available for her, her daughter, or their future.
This thought breaks her heart.
She looks out her doorway at a group of Save the Children workers and dreams the impossible dream for her daughter.
Could the promise of a safe environment for children, a school for her daughter to attend, and learn the wonders of the world, become a reality?
She allows herself to smile inwardly at such hope, but understands Sri Lanka and the history and culture of her people all too well to put such faith into the future.
Standing in the doorway, she ponders the stories and rumors of Save the Children, the hope this organization has brought to neighboring tea plantations. It is a glint of a possibility, the chance of future happiness for her daughter.
She steps closer to listen to the voices of the workers as supplies are dropped off, and before she is noticed, she quickly slips back into her tiny shack.
As she begins to prepare dinner, she senses a tingling of awareness, the freedom the human soul needs to dream and pursue experiences.
Tonight she is happy. She reflects on the stories of suffering and repression told by her grandmother and mother, as well as the horrible experiences she’s had herself, but instead of defeat, she sees hope—the hope that the vicious cycle of oppression will end.
Generations upon generations of young women are born into servitude in the tea industry, forever working the tea fields of Sri Lankan tea plantations.
The high country of Nuwara Eliya, far removed from the large cities and their economic successes, has remained stuck in the dark ages. Business corruption and ancient ideas thousands of years old keep the Tamil people of this area stuck in purgatory.
The Tamils give their life and blood to the tea industry, making up 2% of the country’s GDP, a commitment spanning centuries. It is a hard life, and while the industry is trying to find a way to give back, there are conflicts of interest.
Business is business, and tea plantation owners are currently undergoing a deteriorating market for Ceylon Tea. In addition to the fear of further decreases in sales and higher costs of providing benefits to the field workers, plantation owners are also terrified of losing a cheap workforce by allowing freedoms and opportunities to the Tamil women and children.
Economics of the modern day meets the politics of the Dark Ages.
Save the Children, as well as other relief organizations, have been working to break this relentless and cruel cycle, robbing the potential of these children. It is difficult not to shudder while looking into their eyes, understanding the future ~ their fate determined at birth.
Change is not easy, especially given the tension between gender and class struggle seeped into cultural beliefs spanning millennia. The Tamil women and children face daily battles in this quagmire of repression.
A Sri Lankan worker at Save the Children discussed the value the organization brings to the people of Nuwara Eliya, mentioning a quote from Swami Vivekananda, “Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.”
This piece of Hindu philosophy, an important part of their culture, rings hollow to them. It is difficult for them to grasp the idea of freedom not to mention the courage to act on such thoughts.
The people of Sri Lanka are the ones stepping up to make a difference. Sri Lankans with the wisdom to understand the value women and children have to their country and their efforts within the Save the Children system bring real change via the following programs:
- Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD)
- Education
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Such programs provide the base to empower the women of Nuwara Eliya and of Sri Lanka. When hope is instilled in a group, confidence soon follows, giving strength to tackle issues. Real change begins to take place.
The Tea Association of Sri Lanka is working with Save the Children on an updated branding model for Fair Trade Tea, a platform of reform for all large tea estates to provide specific and permanent benefits for women and children within their plantations.
In the past, the salaries of women from the tea estates were transferred directly to the “man of the house,” with the result that wages were often wasted on alcohol or gambling.
No longer is this the case. Women now receive salaries directly so the money can be used to buy food and necessary items for childcare. This is empowerment. Step-by-step, change is happening. The dreams of children are beginning to form.
She again stands in the doorway, this time watching her grown daughter go off to work. Her daughter, as with past generations of her family, continues the tradition of working on the tea estates…but here is a twist to the tale. Instead of picking leaves in a field far away, she is wearing a white blouse and has entered a nurse-in-training program at the local clinic.
Her daughter looks back and gives a quick smile before disappearing into the plantation’s maternity clinic.
Her eyes well up with tears once again, as they had every evening in the past when she worked in the fields. This time, however, the tears of sadness are absent; instead, flowing down her cheeks are tears of pure happiness…
Save the Children and other aid groups, such as World Vision, are working in Sri Lanka to break the cycle of repression. To provide hope for children and their mothers, offering an opportunity to achieve what was once unimaginable: an education and a dream of advancement.
If you are interested in learning more about Save the Children please click on a site listed below:
Global Sojourns: Photography & Philosophy 
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