NEPAL
The Sandakphu Tea Factory in Ilam, eastern Nepal, was set up by Chandra Bhushan and his wife, Twistina, to allow local villagers to process their freshly harvested tea and produce some unusual and high quality white, oolong green and black teas for the international market.
One of the main ethics driving the work of the factory has always been to give women a fair chance in the work place, but in a country where female workers are still seen as inferior, attempts to promote women to positions of authority presented a major challenge.
After long and complicated discussions and negotiations, however, Bhushan and Twistina managed to get their vision across to the local community and the factory is now run by women – a real achievement for all involved. All field-based finance is controlled by women and teas are made the factory’s female technical hand with support from male machinery experts.