Train 155 Youth to Teach 2325 Sri Lankan Children

Just wanted to write a short update on how 2020 has started off and to thank you for your kindness and support.

We now have three centres that we run in the tea plantations of Sri Lanka, and are thrilled that these centres have started 2020 with the registrations and enrolment for our new intake of the Main Diploma programmes.

Tea Leaf Vision Maskeliya, our flagship centre, received 337 applications for 150 places - we have squeezed in 165 students to try and meet the demand. Tea Leaf Vision Nuwara Eliya has 110 students registered and attending and our satellite centre in Tallawakelle is over-subscribed with 67 applications for 40 places. 

Students who were not able to gain a full-time place have been invited to part-time classes on the weekends. We recognise that life is getting tougher, salaries that were already insulting and dangerously low are stagnating whilst living costs are rising. It is due to this that we are trying to find new partnerships to launch new initiatives to support these young people and their families.

The most exciting thing to report is that we believe the local government has now relaxed its ruling for us so we are able to run a full Community English Programme this year. We have already started to train our students how to teach Basic English to young children and this training will happen weekly until April. In May, our students will leave school at lunchtime on Wednesdays to travel to remote tea estate schools to teach free English classes for two hours a week. We are aiming to reach around 50 schools and 3,500 children this year across our centres.

Please do let me know if you have any questions. Please also get in touch if you would be interested in volunteering at our centres in Sri Lanka, we would love to see you.

With best wishes,

Tim and Yas and the Tea Leaf Trust Team