Emergency Coronavirus Response

Hello!

I hope that you are doing really well and seeing some normality return to your lives and managing to see loved ones and enjoy some good weather (or at least one of the above).

With the situation remaining largely the same in Sri Lanka with our centres shut, our teachers working wonders to support our communities online and through phone calls and vaccinations in the tea estates being so much slower to be rolled out than the rest of the country... I wanted to avoid the same style of report and remind us all of why we do it. I wanted to share the below case study I got sent the other day by the team in Sri Lanka:

 Alumni Case Study: Saranya from 2017 

Saranya, an alumni from Gouravilla, attended Tea Leaf Vision (TLV) in 2017. She used to travel to school for about an hour every day. She has three brothers; one of them works at TLV while the other two are still in school. Her mother died of illness in 2015, and her father supports the family by working in Colombo. Saranya used to finish all the household chores and get her two brothers ready for school before coming to TLV every day after her mother died.

She used to remain at her uncle's home while learning at TLV, yet she had a great deal of issues there. Despite this, Saranya attended to TLV every day because she was keen to improve her English.

Saranya received excellent grades in her Advanced Level exams, allowing her to gain a place at university. She was the first in her family to get such a fantastic opportunity. She enrolled in TLV to improve her English skills in order to perform better in university. Her brother's extraordinary improvement throughout a year of studies at TLV motivated her.

Saranya was apprehensive about joining TLV at the beginning. She was an introvert who struggled to fit in with the crowd but she gained confidence and began working hard after a few weeks.

She graduated TLV with a distinction pass and joined the university in 2018. She was afraid of the unfamiliar surroundings and people when she first went to university away from home. All of them come from privileged backgrounds and cities, but Saranya came from Maskeliya, which is a disadvantaged location that few people are familiar with. Saranya, on the other hand, was confident because her English was better than that of many of her peers.

TLV has taught her a variety of life skills, which she appreciates. She claims that TLV taught her how to confidently deliver presentations in front of her lectures, trainees, and individuals from other countries.

She is pursuing a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict resolution and served as the ambassador of Sri Lanka at an international peace conference. She was nominated for the Global Peace and Humanitarian Award, which honors individuals who have made significant contributions to improving the lives of others through their example.

Saranya worked at International Youth Alliance for Peace as a research intern, volunteer coordinator, and translator, and is now a field coordinator at Shramabhimani Kendrayas, a non-governmental and social services organization. She will finish her bachelor's degree in 2022 and plans to get a master's degree in peace and conflict resolution.

We are so proud of her and so many of our students who leave us and achieve so much in order to lift their families out of extreme poverty.

Here's to Saranya, and here's to you for helping us help her.

With best wishes,

Tim

Dear All,

Firstly, as ever, we send our love and thoughts to you and your loved ones as these trying times continue. We hope you are able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Things in the Sri Lankan tea estates continue to be challenging, with the schools still closed, lockdown still in place and families struggling to make ends meet. The government support supposedly extends Rs 5,000  (USD$40) per month to help, but in reality the racism and corruption of the local officials who hold the decision making power means that the Tamils of the tea estates are not seeing this financial support. 

So, your support remains critical to creating as much of a safety net as we are able to provide.

In the last month we have extended this support to some members of our junior staff team who live in households where all the other adults have lost their jobs and their own salaries are being stretched to breaking point. We are adding additional 'bonus' pay to the salaries of 13 of our 41 staff to help them. They are all from tea estate communities. We are proud to say that we have been able to continue to employ and support our staff and their families throughout this poandemic, without them we are nothing.

In a bit of good news, the government has announced that NGO/charity staff are to be prioritised for vaccine rollout and this includes all of our staff members, we are really grateful to the government for this decision.

Thank you again for all of your support, and we do wish you a wonderful summer (or winter for those of us in Australia or New Zealand!)

With best wishes,

Tim

Links:

• Our TLT Facebook Page