At Suki Tea, community projects - both local and global - are very close to our hearts and we will always endeavour to support causes that we believe align with our company’s values.
Each year, Suki Tea makes a donation to Sowarthe Tea Gardens in Rwanda to help them deliver their award-winning CSR programme. We have been sourcing tea from Sorwathe since 2014 and have made multiple visits to the area. Whilst Annie and I were there we experienced first-hand some of the fantastic social initiatives being carried out by the people living and working in the area, it really was obvious to us that Sorwathe Tea Gardens do a wonderful job looking after their workers and their families, as well as communities in the surrounding areas. As one of our key producers, we are delighted to play a part in such an invaluable project.
At Suki Tea, community projects - both local and global - are very close to our hearts and we will always endeavour to support causes that we believe align with our company’s values.
Each year, Suki Tea makes a donation to Sowarthe Tea Gardens in Rwanda to help them deliver their award-winning CSR programme. We have been sourcing tea from Sorwathe since 2014 and have made two visits to the area; most recently in May of this year. Whilst Annie and I were there we experienced first-hand some of the fantastic social initiatives being carried out by the people living and working in the area, it really was obvious to us that Sorwathe Tea Gardens do a wonderful job looking after their workers and their families, as well as communities in the surrounding areas. As one of our key producers, we are delighted to play a part in such an invaluable project.
One key project that our support is helping to deliver is Sowarthe’s One Cup of Porridge programme which provides a cup of porridge each morning to the children of tea plantation workers through their nursery school. Annie and I had the chance to help prepare this porridge one morning and what a privilege it was to see how dedicated the ladies are.
We walk in and there are two huge pots bubbling over smoky, open fires requiring strong arms to constantly stir the porridge. Thick, sweet wholesome porridge is then transferred to large gerry cans and placed in ‘saddle boxes’ on either side of a push bike for transportation to the nurseries by push bike. We then had the pleasure of bringing the freshly prepared porridge to the local schools that morning, some of the workers have to travel as many as 13 km to the nursery schools furthest away from their kitchens, which is no mean feat during rainy season on pot-holed red dirt mountainous roads in the rainy season!
Meeting the children and enjoying the freshly made porridge with them that morning at their school was a really lovely part of our trip
Their fun and laughter was infectious and it was really obvious what a huge difference this project was making to each of them.
As well as this, Sorwathe aim to open one new nursery school each year in the local area, providing valuable early years’ education and a safe, learning environment to pre-school children of the tea plantation workers. Suki Tea are very proud to be involved with this great work and we will continue to share stories of the invaluable being work being carried out in the Sowarthe Tea Gardens.
Zoe.
