A person without education is easily manipulated. Una persona sin educación es fácilmente manipulable

Black hole. Agujero negro

I feel like apologizing for showing Pako Bhuiya, his wife and their child in the intimacy of the one-room house where they live. Even though they allowed the camera inside, I have some reservations about displaying so much human misery. Not a single piece of furniture, a stove where they fry some rice and prepare some tea, a plastic bag serve as a carpet and is the baby’s crib as well, hens nibbling what they can on the mud floor, and a bamboo stick holding the thatch roof. That’s the way the tea garden workers live in Bangladesh; a black hole from where they can’t escape and where they have been trapped for four generations now. I think we should be ashamed for these situations in which people put other people. We have committed ourselves to take their children out of that, building a high school for them in Moulovibazar (see the project here). Please, if you can, help us here.

Casi quisiera pedir perdón a Pako Bhuiya, a su esposa y a su hijo por esta intromisión en la intimidad de la casa en la que viven. A pesar de que aceptaron que la cámara entrase en su única habitación me da un poco de reparo mostrar tanta miseria. Ni un solo mueble digno de ese nombre, un fogón en el que fríen un poco de arroz y preparan algo de té, unos sacos de plástico sirven de alfombra y de cuna al niño, las gallinas que picotean lo poco que encuentran por el suelo, y un tronco de bambú que es el pilar que sostiene el techo de paja. Así viven los trabajadores de las plantaciones de té en Bangladesh: en un agujero negro del que no pueden escapar y en el que llevan atrapados desde hace cuatro generaciones. Yo creo que debería caérsenos la cara de vergüenza por ésta y por otras situaciones en las que las personas ponemos a otras personas. Nosotros nos hemos comprometido a sacar a sus hijos de ahí construyendo para ellos una escuela secundaria en Moulovibazar (ver proyecto aquí). Por favor, si puedes, échanos una mano aquí.

Children's Rights

A land flowing with milk and honey. Una tierra que mana lecha y miel

Tea plantation at commercial scale started in Bangladesh region in 1854, when the current country belonged to the Indian province of Assam. Local people were not interested to work there due to the hard manual work that implies. The British companies brought people belonging to the “untouchable” Hindu communities from different parts of India to work in the tea gardens in Sylhet region, promising them that they would be given a beautiful piece of land and that they would work in a land flowing with milk and honey. After more than 150 years and several generations, those people and their families depend exclusively on the companies running the Tea plantations. The house where they live is not theirs, they have no own land to cultivate, no possibility of saving any money... their only possession is their work force. They have no choice, because, outside the Tea plantation they have nothing: no roots, no history, no social standing in their own country.

Las plantaciones de té a escala comercial comenzaron en la región de Bangladesh en 1854, cuando el país aún pertenecía a la provincia India de Assam. Los nativos de la región no estaban interesados en esta clase de trabajo debido a la ardua labor manual que implicaba. Las empresas británicas trajeron entonces a personas pertenecientes a las comunidades hindúes "intocables" de diferentes partes de la India para trabajar en los campos de té en la región de Sylhet, engañándoles y prometiéndoles que les darían un hermoso pedazo de tierra y que trabajarían en una tierra que mana leche y miel. 150 años y varias generaciones después, los trabajadores y sus familias aún dependen exclusivamente de las compañías propietarias de las plantaciones de té. La miserable casa donde viven no es suya, no tienen tierras para cultivar, sin posibilidad de ahorrar la mínima cantidad de dinero... su única posesión es su mano de obra. No tienen elección, porque fuera de la plantación de té no tienen absolutamente nada: viven sin raíces, sin historia, sin status social en su propio país.

His future broke into a thousand pieces. El futuro se le rompió en mil pedazos

Sumon is a 15-year-old boy. He studies 2nd year of secondary in the small school run by Holy Cross priests in Srimongol (Bangladesh) for the tea workers children. The boy has managed to go further in studies than anyone else in his family; at the cost of immense sacrifices. Sumon is not a whiz, but with effort and tenacity, has been passing course after course. He’s got dreams and hopes for the future. Completion of the studies, to find a decent job, to take his family away from the plantations hell. And suddenly one morning, his future broke into a thousand pieces. Someone announced him that his mother just died. If someone from the family doesn't take his position on the plantation, they will be ejected from the miserable house in which they live. Sumon is the eldest of his brothers and sisters, the only one who can replace his mother. So he had no choice; he left school to go bury her mother and never came back. Now he is probably tied to a machine, grinding tea leaves 8 - 10 hours a day or spreading insecticide on plants without any protection. His future broke into a thousand pieces.


You who are reading this, could you help us to get to the greater number of boys and girls in this situation? We offer you the possibility to do something important for them. Click on DONATE and do what you can. Thank you.

Sumon es un chico de 15 años. Estudia 2º de secundaria en la escuelita que los sacerdotes de Holy Cross tienen en Srimongol (Bangladesh) para los hijos de los trabajadores de las plantaciones de té. El chico ha logrado llegar más lejos en los estudios de lo que nadie de su familia había conseguido nunca. A costa de inmensos sacrificios, todo hay que decirlo. Sumon no es una lumbrera, pero con esfuerzo y tesón, ha ido aprobando curso tras curso. Tiene sueños y esperanzas para el futuro. Terminar los estudios, encontrar un empleo digno, sacar a su familia del infierno de las plantaciones. Y de repente, una mañana, su futuro se rompió en mil pedazos. Le anuncian que su madre ha muerto; si alguien de la familia no toma su puesto en la plantación, serán expulsados de la miserable casa en la que viven. Sumon es el mayor de sus hermanos, el único que puede reemplazar a su madre. Así que no tuvo elección; dejó la escuela para ir a enterrar a su madre y nunca más volvió. Ahora estará probablemente atado a una maquina triturando hojas de té de 8 a 10 horas al día, o esparciendo insecticida sin protección ninguna sobre las plantas. Su futuro se rompió en mil pedazos.

Tú que lees estas líneas, ¿no podrías ayudarnos a sacar al mayor número posible de chicos y chicas de esta situación? Te ofrecemos la posibilidad de hacer algo importante por ellos y ellas. Pincha en DONATE y haz lo que puedas. Gracias.

Education is the only way out of poverty

“The wage is low.  It is not enough to live on,” says Ruchina Dufo lethargically.  She has probably said this many times yet nothing has changed.  With this starvation wage which the 43 year old earns as a tea picker, she has to feed her four children and her sick mother.  Her sick mother is paralyzed from her hips to her feet so she spends her monotonous days on a roughly hewn wooden flat bed.  It is the only piece of furniture in the house.  A couple of sheet metal pots, a kerosene lamp, a blanket, which she spreads across the mud floor when it’s time to sleep – they own no more.

Ruchina confesses that she sometimes reaches her limit.  “But I have to go on,” she says.  Her face shows no expression. What alternative does she have?  Her parents before her, worked as tea pickers.

“The biggest problem is the house,” Ruchina explains soberly: “If I would look for different work, I would have no roof over my head anymore.”

Most people think alike.  This is the right of the tea companies.  The rent free living, the isolated villages and the many years of refusal by the government to allow schools here all created this dependency.

For herself, claims Ruchina, she has no hope left. Maybe her children will experience better times.  She knows education is the only way out of poverty. 

This is an extract taken from the German made Kontinente Magazin, specialized in Missions.

Tea workers’ wage hiked by 14 Taka (15 cents of euro!)

Here you are an article published in the local newspaper “The Daily Star” saying that the tea gardens workers salary will be increased by… 14 Taka (15 cents of euro) a day! What shocks me is that the worker’s leader says “We are very happy!” They are very happy with 60 cents of euro a day… OMG!

The daily wage of tea garden workers has been enhanced by Taka 14 with effect from June 1. Earlier, it was Taka 55.

The decision was taken at a tripartite meeting held at the labor ministry on May 28. Presided over by Labor and Employment Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, the meeting was attended by leaders of the workers and representatives of tea garden owners. The meeting was called urgently following a report of The Daily Star on the poor wages of the tea garden workers and their other problems on May 25, said a tea workers’ leader. The last time wages of the tea garden workers were increased in 2009. Bijoy Prasad Banerjee, a tea workers’ leader, said, “We are very happy over the increase of the workers’ daily wage by Taka 14.”