Tea gardens transformed a community

Transform Trade/GMB Akash

Johura Khatun is a farmer in northern Bangladesh, who started a tea garden after receiving training from Transform Trade. That garden now supports herself, her husband Hafijhul and their two sons. In her own words...

“Our lands which were barren, those lands which did not produce very good crops, those lands are now our money mine, the amount of money we have earned since tea plantation, we never thought in our dreams that we will see this amount of money in our eyes one day.” 

“We received various training on tea production, how to plant a tea garden, how to plant tea seedlings, how much space should be left between two tea plants, how to prepare tea garden soil, how to take care of a tea garden, and how to fertilize.” 

“The life of our people here [in her village] has changed like night and day, life here was dark like night, there was nothing in people’s life, there was no electricity, people did not have good toilets, there was no water tap in people’s houses, people lived in houses made of leaves. There were no good roads. 

But now... everything is there in everyone’s home. From this tea garden everything we have today, our two children are studying in a very good school in Panchagarh and we have a very good private teacher for the two children, we are spending 30 thousand takas [approximately £220] per month for the education of the two children. I couldn’t even dream of that before.” 

Johura’s hard work and skill running her tea garden has reshaped her family’s future, and growing tea has transformed her entire community.

We want to support more people like Johura - the farmers, workers and artisans persevering in difficult circumstances, using the power of trade to create a more prosperous future.