Projects for Peace: The Nepali Tea Initiative | Middlebury College The Nepali Tea Initiative Bj¨ornPeterson,1 William Brooke,1 Brandon Henry,1 Josh Oberman,1 and Matthew Porat1 Middlebury College Nepal Primary Implementation Period: : May 1, 2013 - August 20, 2013 Secondary Tea Growth Period: August 21, 2013 May 2018 I. BACKGROUND A year and a half ago, a group of Middlebury students got together to develop a sustainable approach for addressing the challenges facing farmers and small businesses in developing countries. What started with a simple goal of helping these groups and individuals escape local price traps and poverty quickly evolved into a dream for even greater societal impact. The goal was no longer to simply raise incomes, but to achieve broader results in partner communities. Today, we hope to bring greater prosperity alongside the benefits of health, education, and women's empowerment in a part of the world suffering from hardships imposed by the lack of opportunity in this post-conflict region. Nepal endured over a decade of civil war with rural regions like the Solukhumbu district being particularly affected. The conflict brought both stagnation and instability along with a new government that has been especially indifferent to the plight of the indigenous peoples. In the five years since the regime change, no progress has been made in the peace process as shown by its inability to draft a new constitution, seventeen failed attempts to elect a prime minister, and 19,000 ex-combatants living in cantonments. The Nepali experiment with peace and democracy is in shambles. II. PROJECT SUMMARY A year ago, we launched a pilot program in concert with the Nepal Children's Health and Education Foundation to explore the possibility of using tea cultivation as a means of bringing economic and social returns to the villages of the Solukhumbu region. To date, this project has received widespread support and success. At present, the pilot program employs 155 women who care for the young tea plants. Each woman works only one day a year so as to extend the positive effects of the program to as many families as possible while minimizing potential distortions in the local economy that would be caused if the women ceased working on their own farms. When the tea plants reach full maturity, each woman will receive the equivalent of a months wages for her one day of work at the tea farm. In this way, a nominal amount of labor by an individual woman results in a significant income increase, enough to send another child to school, pay for an expensive medical treatment, or make a significant investment in her farm or cottage industry. When a woman's income is increased in an area like Solukhumbu, the effects can be felt far beyond her household, with strong implications for further benefits in her community. Nothing strengthens a post-war community like a group of self-reliant women who reach into the very base of their society, strengthening the local economy, reaffirming cultural practices, and building better lives for their children. The women of Solukhumbu lack equal opportunities for employment, suffering from wage discrimination and lacking sufficient voice to affect household and community affairs. To implement the pilot project for tea cultivation, we partnered with the Chheskam Women's Organization and the Nepal Children's Health and Education Foundation (NCHEF), the only organization to continue work in the region during the civil war. Together we successfully launched the program in two villages with 1200 tea plants and worked to lay the framework for a larger subsequent project. Last summer, while in Nepal, we finalized plans for the extension of the initiative, pursuant on sufficient funding. A. Implementation We will work with the Nepal Department of Cooperatives (NDC) to establish a formal cooperative for the women, which will allow for joint land ownership between the members, facilitated internal management and legal authority for operations. We have met with NDC Director Dahal who is very enthusiastic about the project and recognizes the necessity for such an initiative owing to his time serving as the national governments representative in Solukhumbu. Next, it will be critical to provide training to the women in the cooperative and ensure a strong management structure for the organization. To begin, we will offer a full scholarship to the Tea Management program at Tribhuvan University to Aruna Kulung, a young woman from the village of Chheskam who has proven herself to be a capable leader, avid learner, and advocate for the women in her district. To date, and despite our extensive efforts, we have yet to find a woman from the villages who has completed a bachelors degree, making this scholarship a significant step forward for women in this area. Upon completion of her studies, Aruna will return to the villages to provide onsite Projects for Peace: The Nepali Tea Initiative | Middlebury College 2 management and local expertise on tea cultivation. Prior to her return, training provided by the Nepal Tea and Coffee Development Board will be more than sufficient to ensure successful cultivation of the tea. Once the tea has matured and is processed, it will be transported to the United States and Canada for sale. Both the Secretary of Commerce Upadhyaya and Director Bimal of the Trade and Export Promotion Center have assured us of their personal collaboration and desire to see this project succeed, so we foresee no problems in exporting the tea. We have identified several reputable shipping companies for transport. Maximum returns to the villages would be observed if the tea is sold in an international consumer market. Since we began working together, we have benefited from the experience gained in helping several other organizations and businesses gain access to American markets and have already received an offer to purchase the tea produced in Solukhumbu, helping to ensure a successful completion of the project. B. Team and Middlebury Community Our team is primarily comprised of students at Middlebury College, though we have included individuals from other institutions all around the world. We have involved ourselves in a number of projects throughout Nepal in addition to Africa and other parts of Asia. The core team that has been working on the tea pilot project and our other work in Nepal will be the primary driving force behind this exciting initiative. Together, Matthew Porat, Brandon Henry, Bjorn Peterson, Josh Oberman, and Will Brooke have experience in all the requisite fields for this project to succeed, ranging from marketing and finance to government and international nonprofit work. Furthermore, the group has drawn on resources at and around Middlebury like the Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Midd Venture Community, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, and the extensive experience of Middlebury's faculty and staff. Combined with our local friendships, professional relationships, and unique connections, we have demonstrated the ability to overcome traditional obstacles and operate successfully in an environment that would ordinarily be inaccessible, allowing us to support communities far from the reach of conventional aid. CONCLUSION At present, the pilot program started last year has shown us the potential for this project and our experience in the region has convinced us of the importance of such an initiative. At present we feel that we have helped to better the lives of women in a handful of households, but know that we lack the funds to move forward and thereby have a discernable impact on the community as a whole. Through the initiative, we will be able to provide sustainable job opportunities for women in the Himalayas. In addition to the direct returns they will individually experience, the women will collectively strengthen their communities. Fiscal returns from the project that do not go directly to the women will be used by NCHEF to support other development projects in health and education, helping to ensure progress across several complementary sectors in the community. Owing to its environmental sustainability and health benefits, tea has come to universally represent and evoke a sense goodness; however, we have come even further to recognize tea as a means of self-empowerment for the women of Nepal. Through the generosity of the Kathryn Davis Projects for Peace, we see the opportunity to help and guide these women as they strive to overcome the hardships of a post-conflict state in order to create better lives for their children..