Education

Access to a good education can be a luxury for many of the kids in the rural tea and coffee growing regions we buy from. That’s why we work with our suppliers on projects to give opportunities to students and to make sure they have what they need to learn and develop.

Funding school places with KTDA

According to the Kenyan Tea Development Agency (KDTA), education is the best tool for improving the socio-economic livelihoods of communities in Kenya. It’s easy to see why; learning new knowledge and skills can help the next generation to get better jobs, start businesses of their own, and change societies for the better.

But in Kenya, while the government now supports all schoolchildren through primary school education, secondary school fees are still prohibitively high for many students. To help level the playing field, we’ve partnered with the KTDA over the years to fund secondary education for students in our tea-producing communities. Our sponsorship has helped over 100 students who would otherwise not been able to pursue their education — giving them a chance to work their way up to a brighter future.

Improving learning environments

We’re also helping to make improvements to the learning environments that kids experience. We’ve invested in the construction of a new science lab at Savani Secondary School in Kenya to give students a chance to take part in practical science sessions before they start on their exams.

This will help improve academic results as well as alleviating some of the stress caused at exam time for both teachers and students as they’ll be much better equipped to prepare for them.

And in Rwanda we’re working on a project with our Supplier of the Year, Sorwathe, to improve the classrooms at a primary school and provide 200 school desks.