Bangladesh – St Marcellin School : Empowerment of Tea Plantation Workers through Education

The workers in the tea plantations are one of the most disadvantaged social groups in the country,
working basically as slave labour for around A$1.75 per day! Poor living and working conditions, as
well as social discrimination as members of minority tribal groups, deprive them of basic human
needs and rights necessary to improve their lives. This environment creates a cycle in which the
children of these workers, in turn, have no other option than becoming tea workers themselves.

St Marcellin School in Giasnogor provides secondary education to children (boys and girls) born in
the Tea Gardens of Bangladesh. Boarding facilities are offered to children where distance would
preclude school attendance.

Lenity has committed funding for 5 years to St Marcellin School to enable, through education, better
employment opportunities, diminish the high rate of teenage marriage and its consequences and a
more hopeful future for these children and their children’s children.