The island of Sri Lanka is in fourth place in the world in the production of “green gold”, thanks to which it is still able to cope with the serious crisis that has affected the country.
Antonella Palermo – Vatican News, Hatton (Sri Lanka)
But how much exploitation is hidden behind the cultivation of the Chinese tea tree (Camellia sinensis)? We find out with the MAGIS Foundation, which supports educational projects in these remote areas for Dalit families brought here from India two centuries ago. In the midst of misery and the absence of minimal forms of protection, an urgently needed display of solidarity appears.
Sipping tea and remembering what is hidden behind its production, mostly stories of ancient and modern slavery of whole families. This is what one takes away from the continuation of the journey to Sri Lanka in the company of the MAGIS Foundation (Jesuit Movement and Joint Action for Development), which this time goes from Colombo to the center of the island.
Towards the green heart of the island
The journey from the capital to Hatton, the heart of Ceylon’s green gold harvest, is long and arduous. The condition of the roads inland is fairly good, although they are quite narrow; speed limits are low: mostly enforced by the number of animals that carelessly wander and crowd the roads. From cows to many stray dogs thirsty from the extreme heat and full of fleas, from chickens to donkeys, from jumping monkeys to peacocks. It is teeming with tuktuks, traditional three-wheeled vehicles that are mostly rented by tourists and that add color to the crowded traffic of larger centers. Along the roads, vendors sell spices, fish, tropical fruits: delicious mangoes and melons, papaya and pineapple, seeds of all kinds. These are laid out to dry without any protection directly on the hot surface of the road: real decorations, placed on the ground as if they were petals, as if it were always a celebration, almost as if they resembled the bright tones of the fabrics worn: from golden yellow to rust, from turquoise to green, with all shades of red.
Ambrogio Bongiovanni at otec Gabriel Alfred
The road to freedom
We stopped at the Jesuit Father Gabriel Alfredo at a higher altitude, who offers an excellent breakfast in the canteen of the small parish. ‘We are very cold at night,’ he admits, ‘there is no heating here, we have few resources. And the temperature differences are palpable”. He lives alone, right next to the church. There are about fifty families in the parish. He explains that they are people who still do not own any land: a few centuries ago the English colonizers deported them from southern India to cultivate the Ceylon countryside, where camellia sinensis bushes have taken hold so well. “Many young people leave these areas because of unfavorable working conditions. They mostly move to cities where they get jobs in restaurants if they can. Often, especially recently, it is mothers who emigrate to the Gulf countries and leave their families there. This creates wounds,” explains the priest, “a true division of the family that does not always heal. According to him, in connection with the war in the Middle East, a forced exodus is being created, which brings with it other problems that are difficult to absorb.
Harvesting tea: no rights, no home, no rest
The itinerary begins with a stop in Badulla, one of the poorest dioceses in the country. This is followed by a journey to the central part of the island’s highlands, where rain and a cool, humid climate support the cultivation of the highest quality tea. Sri Lanka ranks fourth in the world in production after China, India and Kenya. The landscape here is charming, the hills are terraced with plantations. One sees ticket collectors with wicker bags on their backs; mostly ethnic Tamil women who are forced to work very long shifts earning less than three dollars each working day. In many cases, they are forced to take loans and even fall into the trap of loan sharks. These people are still deprived of their basic rights, which is why the organization “Voice of the Planters” continues to appeal to the government to put an end to this real exploitation.
Jesuit Alexis Prem Kumar
Among the “outcasts” in the hope of social redemption
Eighty percent of the people employed on the plantations are dalits, “outcasts,” that is, those who were originally called untouchables. They are ashamed to talk about it, say the operators of the Loyola Centre, which has run two programs for these people in Hatton since 1993: one educational for children under five (Loyola Campus), the other as social support when looking for work (Centre for Social Concern). The director of both projects, supported by Magis, is the Jesuit Father Alexis Prem Kumar, with amazing energy and irony and with a personal story that has something incredible in it: an Indian, he worked for the Jesuit Refugee Service with Sri Lankan refugees living in Tamil Nadu. When he was transferred to the Jesuit Refugee Service in Afghanistan, he was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2014. After eight months between life and death, he was freed and is currently working on the frontline in Sri Lanka, where he is trying to raise awareness of the conditions in which tea workers live and to liberate them by providing them with education thanks to Magis . “Without education there will be no development, there will always be poverty,” he says.
Loyola Center Preschools
Sister Patricia Lemus, a Guatemalan Combonian who has been in the country for four and a half years, also helps the staff. It is particularly involved in supporting the knowledge of English among young people who would otherwise be cut off from entering university (only a quarter manage to continue their studies). “I am learning here not to follow programs thrown down from above, but to deeply understand the needs of the present time and to adapt responses to today. And then there is a lot of creativity. I came after years of missionary work in Kenya with the intention of doing, of working. But rather, I am learning to be with, than doing. Here spirituality is experienced in a very inner way, I used to be more, let’s say, expansive. That’s fine. Pearly smile, clear eyes: these are the eyes of Yogita Madonna, the mother of a family who commutes almost four hours every day by bus to and from the center, where she is the activities coordinator. She also provides nutrition programs for parents and psychological support for young mothers in the five kindergartens she oversees. “They are very, very poor here, and I am very proud of our work,” she says . “For these children, wearing a uniform in the classroom is a sign of dignity, they feel that they can be like the other children they see on the street. There are obvious fruits of our efforts: in the beginning the little ones couldn’t talk to us, they couldn’t open their mouths at all, now they are very friendly, at ease. Their attitude has changed a lot. They are growing well. And parents already know that in this age group it is necessary to get the most out of learning”.
Sharing the goals achieved through Magis projects on the plantations
Vulnerability of remote villages
The welcome in two of the schools visited takes place with all the rituals of the local culture: wreaths of flowers, lighting of candles, bindi (“red drop”) on the forehead: signs of belonging to a community that wants to open up to strangers who share it. Teachers create calmness, create an atmosphere of celebration and extraordinary respect for guests. They tell about their experience of contact with poor families who live in shelters built inside tin sheds, without water, only what flows from a common pump between the chickens can serve as a minimum supply. Yet Sri Lanka is an island of rice paddies, lush nature that offers reservoirs of rare beauty. They are socio-economic contradictions that on the one hand punish and on the other hand reward the same humanity. Here one immerses oneself in remote villages that almost blend into the bright green tea bushes. One has to go after them and find them, to discover them in all their vulnerability. The presence of some spouses at the meetings with the president of the MAGIS Foundation Ambrogio Bongiovanni and the project director is a peculiarity that is not always obvious and frequent: it is a good sign of commitment, the teachers explain, and testifies to the sense of family that is being regained despite the victims of poverty. It is usually women who take full responsibility for raising children; finding a man in the classroom also shows that the work carried out within these projects does not end with the transfer of basic elements on a cognitive level, but includes the integral building of a person who slowly gains awareness of his own worth and overcomes the fear of prejudice.
The next stop is in the north, on the edge of the ocean strip separating the former Ceylon from India. As the landscape thins, the commitment to support these shy and sensitive people, who are nevertheless capable of such friendliness, becomes even more demanding and necessary.