New-age Philanthropy
By Cindy-Lou Dale
 Television news bombards us daily with
images of global destruction, famine, disease, and wars. No wonder we despair at
the future mankind is forging for itself, one filled with hopelessness and
religious fanatics hiding behind guns.
However, what the news does not show is
a modified trend amongst the citizens of the world - a transfer from salvation
to liberation; a change in mindset and taking responsibility, teaching other
like-minded individuals by example.
As a reporter I travel to many
third-world countries, those with just emerging markets, and of late have seen
this thread as a constant in all of them.
 In poverty stricken Africa I met a
Ugandan businessman who formed Rwenzori Coffee Company and empowered his farmers
by teaching them how to tend to their plants and negotiate good market prices.
Recently I met a group of Malawian coffee growers who were facing the near
collapse of the industry and banded together to form the Mzuzu Coffee Company -
now one of the most sought after coffee exporters in Africa. It only takes one
person with foresight, a person who has lost faith in government policy and
decides to take control of his own future, enhancing his community and
benefiting everyone surrounding him.
I had the privilege of meeting another
such pioneer when I recently travelled to the tropical paradise island of Sri
Lanka, just off the southern tip of India; home to arguably the world’s best
cricketers and legendary Ceylon tea.
 What the guidebooks promised and what I
found were worlds apart. Sri Lanka’s cities are full of dilapidated buildings,
untouched since independence in 1948, with garbage strewn everywhere. The
markets – noisy and confusing – are shrouded in tropical cloaks of decay. Nobody
seems too concerned about living in squalor.
With no motorways and no sidewalks,
pedestrians are forced to walk in the chaotic traffic where the ‘every man for
himself’ rule applies. There seems to be a type of frenetic morse code Sri
Lankan drivers use. Everyone leans on their horns - not signifying an urgent
alert, mind you, but rather to communicate to other road users that they are
approaching, or to move out the way, perhaps mobilise a sleeping street dog,
give another vehicle access, hello, thank you. Each honk seems to convey a
different message. Thus I extracted myself from this mayhem and headed to the
mountains.
 The Tea Country, as it is know, is Sri
Lanka’s most magnificent region - tropical waterfalls spilling to bottomless
gorges, views of pastoral splendour to undulating horizons. One lookout I
particularly recall was reminiscent of a shaken-out quilt just settling back
onto a bed. Punctuating these tranquil settings are cool mountain resort towns
acting as gentle reminders of an era dominated by monied English tea barons’
colonial Tudor-styled homes, complete with trimmed rose bushes and manicured
lawns.
 Sri Lanka – still referred to as Ceylon
by the industry - was initially a colonial coffee island until a rotting fungus
destroyed the crops in the 1860s. A few years later James Taylor, a Scottish
coffee plantation manager, tested a few acres of tea and changed the islands
future. Today Sri Lanka is the world's largest tea exporter.
I became quietly excited as I neared my
first appointment; a sign announced the name of the estate I was entering. My
driver stopped so I could take in the landscape - glorious swathes of intensely
green tea acreage which not so much dazzled my senses as reawakened them.
 At the entrance to the factory I was met
by a locked gate. A security guard, a formidable-looking stick of a man,
indicated the factory to be closed for the day. I asked that he call the manager
as I had an appointment. The manager sent his deputy, who could not bring
himself to come down to meet me but instead gesticulated to my driver that we
should leave and come back when the factory was open – tomorrow maybe.
On our way out, we passed the tea
picker’s living quarters. What I saw there took filth to a different level. To
prevent myself from gagging, I needed to cover my nose and mouth as we drove by
their stable-like accommodations. I saw no electric power lines to their
dwellings and from the foul stench presume their outdoors latrines were not
functional. I was therefore not shocked to see an adult squatting over a long
trench, running down one end of the enclosure, voiding his bowels, whilst a
toddler played in the very same trench but a few feet away.
 And thus it was, in a shocked and
sickened state that I arrived at my next plantation appointment near the town of
Haputale – the Thotulagalla Estate, part of the Greenfield Bio Plantations
Group.
A barrel of a man extended his meaty
hand giving mine a vigorous shake.
“Welcome”, he growled, “I’m Newman. Mike
Newman.” He indicated that I should follow him up the sloping driveway to his
house beside the factory. The Thotulagalla Estate is some 6,000 feet above sea
level and produces organically grown tea which is processed at the on-site
factory.
 Mike Newman, a seasoned planter who
hails from a respected cultivating family, manages the Thotulagalla Organic Tea
plantation with a labour force of some 350.
Mindful of the impact conventional
farming practices have on the environment and society, the Thotulagalla Estate
is committed to using only organic, environmental and socially ethical methods
in the growing and processing of their product and carry the certified Level A
(full organic) status.
 We decanted into Mike’s 4x4 and drove
through the immense Estate. I asked that he stop for a while so I could
photograph and observe the spellbinding image of the vivid saris amongst the
waist high emerald bushes. The hands of the tea pickers resembled butterflies
flitting over the shrubs, moving independently of one another, nipping off the
youngest and topmost leaves by snapping the stem, then tossing the pickings into
the large baskets on their backs.
“Ceylon Tea,” Mike announced, “has for
the past century had the clear distinction of being the finest, most fragrant
tea in the world.” He considered the landscape before him.
“We are blessed with the ability to grow
tea in an ideal climate and in near perfect conditions here in the Uva province.
By us using only purely organic methods of growing and harvesting, we reduce the
caffeine and tannin, which undoubtedly contributes to the distinct richness and
flavour you’ll find in your cup – which is as nature intended.”
 I enquired after the need to go organic,
seeing that conditions where already so agreeable.
“The health benefits, to start with, are
numerous,” Mike claimed. “An organic workplace provides for a safer working
environment. In conventional agriculture there is widespread misuse of
agro-chemical fertilisers, herbicide and pesticides due to lack of awareness,
due to not reading instructions, due to not wearing protective clothing or lack
of chemical storage knowledge. No such issues exist with organic products.”
He continued. “The misuse of chemicals
often leads to products reaching local markets with harmfully high level of
pesticide residue. This does not occur with organic food.”
 Mike went on to explain that organic
crops may initially yield less, but this is outweighed but the cost of
production which is much lower.
“There are social benefits to organic
agricultural practices too. Firstly, it’s essentially sustainable and requires
no external inputs to keep the system going indefinitely. As nothing is paid to
national- and multi-national companies for the supply of chemicals, money stays
on the farm, in the farming community, and in the country, thus ending the
poverty trap.”
“You can only image the environmental
benefits this has,” Mike gesticulated at the plantation before us. “Use of
agro-chemicals over time reduces the quality of the topsoil, vital for plant
growth. As a result, as time evolves farmers need to use more and more chemical
fertiliser to achieve the same results. Sustainability of organic farming
systems involves soil development and conservation as a major aspect. Use of
manure, compost and vegetable matter improves the soil structure and
consequently improves soil quality. Over time the productivity of the soil
increases the output or harvest.”
 “Then you also need to think of the
water which drains through soil laden with agro-chemicals, eventually entering
rivers and the ocean. Agro-chemicals are not only harming the fish but also the
environment and the wildlife that drink from the rivers. Organic farming means
no contamination of any kind.”
Mike detailed the adverse effects of
agro-chemicals on the many species of wild plants, animals, insects and birds,
as can be seen in Europe and other Western countries. There has been a steady
decline in numbers of songbirds, wild flowers in hedgerows and fields, and
native animal species.
 I noticed some tea pickers being bussed
off to a building in the valley and enquired after their destination.
“Nursing mothers are transported to the
crèche three times a day,” Mike claimed.
Encouraged by this show of humanity, I
enquired after the other facilities Thotulagalla Estate provides their staff and
discovered that not only was there a crèche, but a primary school and a newly
built secondary school too, with teachers provided by the Education Department;
an estate medical practitioner, a brand-new community centre, and really good
housing – each with a patch of land for self cultivation or live-stock grazing.
 I asked to me taken to these facilities
and later met Malar, a soft spoken kindergarten teacher with large doe eyes who
showed off her spotlessly tidy amenities; and Shilpa, the Estate’s head teacher
who showed her eager class a scrapbook containing letters and photographs I
brought for them from a school in my hometown.
Thotulagalla Estate has a medical-centre
with a newly retired pharmacist (according to Mike he needs replacing as he
plans to visit relatives in India); medicines and midwife facilities are
provided free to the employees and their families; family planning is available
to all and a women’s medical officer works on the Estate. Free treatment is
offered to Estate employees and their families at the hospital in the nearby
Haputale.
 I walked around the little village which
contained neat brick houses (water and energy supplied by the Estate) and found
willing models for my camera. Mike and his petite wife, Hirani, chatted with
off-duty staff that came out to greet them. Clearly the Newman’s were held in
high esteem.
“This is our newly built community
centre,” Hirani Newman announced. “It was built with funds partly derived from
Fair-trade and partly our Social Committee.”
Although it is optional to buy
Fair-trade labels the Thotulagalla Estate take it a step further and direct a
sizable chunk of their profit towards the Estate’s Social Committee.
 “I have taught a few of the ladies how
to make decorative ornaments, the finer points of cooking, the art of decorating
a wedding-cake and very soon I’ll have a beautician from Colombo visit and teach
us how to dress and make-up a Buddhist and Hindu bride,” Hirani beautiful face
smiled brightly. “This way the Social Committee will be able to derive an income
from the community centre by hiring it out to neighbouring Estates and villages,
offering a package deal.”
The Thotulagalla Estate is owned by
Greenfield Bio Plantations and has five foreign directors – two based in India,
two in Australia and one in Switzerland, and promoted worldwide by Lanka
Organics based in Colombo.
“They give me a free hand and let me run
the Estate as I see fit,” Mike volunteered.
 We proceeded to the large white tea
factory where Mike guided me through the complicated process of tea withering,
rolling, firing, drying and grading.
“Our present range of organic teas
includes organic black tea from pure Ceylon to English Breakfast, green teas,
herbal and fruit teas.” I sampled each one and could not decide which I liked
more, then decided to try them all again.
On our way out of the factory I spotted
a room containing a couple of warped old tables, rickety chairs and a few
computers dating back to the 80s.
“This is where Hirani teaches secondary
school pupils the fundamentals of I.T.,” Mike said.
“You see we are not only dedicated to
the highest standards of production - we are equally passionate about the
quality of life our staff enjoy. You see, our social and environmental
objectives have ensured that our community benefit through our extensive work
programme.”
 Standing at the precipice of the
Thotulagalla Estate, mist swirling around my ankles and a light breeze dancing
with my hair, I surveyed before me a mystic valley in hues of blue and lavender,
stitched with wisps of silver mist. I half expected a dragon to swoop out of a
hidden cave but instead found the branches around me were hung heavy with birds
who sought a suitable vantage point from which to drink in the timelessly
fetching visa.
I could hear shrieks of hilarity of a
joke being told by the usually serene pickers behind me and distant laughter of
school children ambling home. I turned to look at Mike and Hirani, who were
embraced, and quietly wondered where the television news cameras were now and
how refreshing it would be if, for just one day, we were bombarded by images
like this – images portraying citizens of the world offering hope and
prosperity, kindness and guidance. I felt somewhat humbled standing in the
presence of true leader.
Lanka Organics (Pvt) Ltd
23 Braybrooke Street, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka
Phone +94-11-2300459/2300155
Fax +94-11-2336325
Email
info@lankaorganics.com
Website
www.lankaorganics.com
UK branch office:
Driftwood, The Marrams, Sea Palling, Norfolk, NR12-0UN, England
Phone +44-1692-598135; Fax +44-1692-598141
Email
lanka.organics@tiscali.co.uk |
