Ya-Ya’s Tea-Board

Diane & I talk about social responsibility of individuals and businesses often, but recently these issues have come up more often than usual. Every once in a while we stumble upon stories about someone dedicating a lot of time and/or money to a good cause. But in the overall scheme, it seems that especially businesses - many making enormous profits - often don’t take up the social stewardship.

We’re trying to do our own small part through the teahouse by carefully choosing the products we’re offering (which are mostly fair-trade and/or organic) and the people we’re doing business with. But often, we simply feel helpless.
If you’re anything like us, you’re likely to think about donating to charities often but fail to follow up on it. There are many reasons for this lack of action, the sheer amount of choices being just one of them. I believe that most people are genuinely good and would help, if you just make it very easy - and affordable for anyone.
I have a hunch that these two points are the key to the success of charities. Make it easy and people will give (especially if it doesn’t cost them anything!).

I was pondering about this subject and a suitable post on this blog for a while now, but today I came across a website that gave me the final inspiration.

Goodsearch.com is a website that makes brilliant use of today’s world of business models where a whole lot of revenue (an estimated US$ 6 billion in 2005!) is generated by paid advertisements in internet search results. While Goodsearch.com isn’t a non-profit organization, they donate a minimum of 50% of their revenue to a charity of your choice! The idea is cunning and the effect could be quite profound if enough people participate. And the concept seems to be genuine if one can believe this article in the New York Times.
Since Goodsearch.com uses the search results from Yahoo.com, you could use it as your standard search engine and generate profit for your chosen charity. The only problem from a Kiwi point-of-view is that currently, only American charities are accepted. But that might change in the future if enough people request a change…
Give it a try and see for yourself.

But there is more I wanted to write about. In a recent article and ensuing discussion on T Ching, a tea and health related blog, many people were discussing the terrible conditions that prevail in some tea gardens in India and what to do about it. As I’ve mentioned above, it is often difficult to chose where to focus your charitable efforts. This issue of people dying in tea gardens because of mismanagement and wrong-doings is definitely something we (and I’m sure many of our readers) can relate to in a very direct way. A group of people (led by Ankit Lochan) is getting organized to buy a tea garden and convert it into a certified fair-trade, organic or bio-dynamic tea garden to help improve the situation for tea workers and set an example for the area (which hopefully other people will follow). Investors are currently needed, so if you want to help, contact Ankit with inquiries about options.
Another tea-related non-profit organization in India is the Indus Foundation which has founded a number of elementary schools in North East India to provide much needed education.

To start our readers thinking about these issues and maybe inspire some to take action is all I could wish to achieve with this article. I invite everyone to share their thoughts with us through comments to this post.