Making lives better at the source

From the 2019 Annual Report

Twinings’ ‘Sourced with Care’ programmes have helped more than one-third of a million people in our supplier communities enjoy better lives.

The initiative focuses on three pillars: improving life opportunities by empowering women and young people through health and education; improving living standards with better living conditions; and boosting livelihoods by protecting workers’ rights and improving incomes.

Kenyan tea farmer Josefine. Mother-of-seven Josefine trained as a HERhealth peer educator, via Sourced with Care. Having learnt about essential health issues such as nutrition, family planning, sexually transmitted infections and non-communicable diseases, Josefine now spreads the word among the female colleagues in her tea garden, helping to reduce levels of sickness and maternal mortality. By 2023, in partnership with the non-profit organisation Business for Social Responsibility, we aim to reach all 75,000 of our suppliers’ female farmers in Kenya via the HERhealth programme, and to provide 50,000 women in Kenya, Malawi and India with access to essential health services.

Lalita, an Assam tea plucker.
Women working in Assam often have poor latrine facilities, offering very limited privacy and becoming unhygienic during the rainy season. Through Sourced with Care we provided Lalita and her student daughter Dipti with a robust new bathroom and toilet, affording them privacy, dignity and security. Lalita’s toilet is one of around 2,000 we have installed in suppliers’ plantations in Assam and Darjeeling.

Sasi, a Sri Lankan trade union leader.
Sasi is one of many to have benefited from our introduction, in partnership with the international development agency CARE International, of community development forums (CDFs). With industrial relations sometimes strained in the Sri Lankan tea sector, CDFs provide a space for workers and leaders to meet, debate issues and share information. Sasi recently drew on the problem-solving tactics he’d learnt at his CDF to diffuse a dispute which had brought his factory to a standstill. He says: “The employer-employee relationship on this estate has improved tremendously thanks to the CDF. I completely changed after receiving training on communication, leadership and gender. Now I know how to communicate effectively with peers and managers.”

As a responsible business and a founder of the Ethical Tea Partnership, Twinings is driving positive change in the industry. However, we cannot do it alone. Partnership is central to the establishment and sustainability of an ethical supply chain and we work closely with NGOs, producers, packers, retailers and industry bodies.