KTDA Foundation

Mar 13

KTDA Foundation, the not-for-profit subsidiary of the Kenya Tea Development Agency, commits to reach 300,000 smallholder tea farmers and farm workers, including at least 150,000 women, with health programs and social and economic empowerment initiatives by June 2023. The commitment is expected to have a ripple effect reaching up to one million people indirectly through interaction with people who have received the knowledge, skills and services.

KTDA Foundation views these initiatives as a means to improve the economic resilience of workers, particularly women, who provide approximately 60 percent of the labour in the tea value chain. The health programming will include on-site trainings and information sessions often through behaviour change initiatives and medical camps focused on sexual and reproductive health, family planning, non-communicable diseases, nutrition and anemia, menstrual hygiene, and mental health. There are also holistic programs that address social empowerment, gender-based violence and harassment to reduce conflict amongst tea farming communities. The aim is also to increase access to health and medical services that are critical to farmers and their communities’ well-being. The Foundation will expand referrals to health providers to ensure access to medicines, screening NCDs, contraception, and family planning services.

This commitment represents an expansion of the Foundation’s social and economic empowerment programs to provide greater economic opportunities to women and men small holder tea farmers and tea pluckers as well as youth in farming communities in Kenya. So far less than half of the 650,000 registered farmers have been reached. The foundation expects to invest USD 2 million in these activities over the next two years, supported by its parent organization KTDA’s annual 2 percent contribution from pre-tax profits. Another USD 1 million of support will come from in-kind contributions of facilities and staff time courtesy of the KTDA Group.