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!