Katrell Christie stands behind the counter of her tea and coffee shop in Atlanta. Threadbare oriental carpets cover the marred concrete floor. Bookshelves line the walls, and secondhand tables with ancient lamps are scattered around. Sumptuous cakes and thick cookies are displayed under glass. More...
The Learning Tea was the most recent location in Atlanta to hold art from Free Art Friday. Free Art Friday is an art scavenger hunt that happens on the first Friday of every month. Participants make art and place it around town for others to find and take home. Clues are then released to the location of the art and the hunt begins.
Free Art Friday approached The Learning Tea to host the art location for September 2012. Clues about The Learning Tea and the scholarships we provide to impoverished Darjeeling women in India were broadcast to help spread awareness about our cause.
A month after appearing on Fox News Channel, the owner of a small tea shop has received an outpouring of support in her grassroots effort to rescue young girls from the sex trafficking industry in India. More...
An Atlanta café owner has gone from raising funds through tea parties to establishing a Darjeeling-based support center, which rescues orphaned girls in India from poverty. Katrell Christie's nonprofit, The Learning Tea, has saved 11 young girls in India from bleek futures, Fox News reports. The funds from her tea sales help Christie to provide these at-risk orphans with shelter, medical care, educational scholarships, and futures free of poverty and exploitation.
Read MoreDue to the astounding amount of positive feedback from the original story Fox News published on The Learning Tea, a followup story was published August 27, 2013.
Read More
The Darjeeling tea industry, as well as the tourism and timber sectors, are heading for hard times because of the ongoing indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM). More...
The Learning Tea Visits Ron Clark Academy (2/11/2012
Last week The Learning Tea was fortunate enough to be apart of Ron Clark Academy’s open house. Students gave personal tours of the academy to visitors telling the history of how the school was formed and how it operates. Ron Clark also allowed us to sit in on his 5th grade math class to fully experience his teaching methods and to be able to see how the children react and learn from him.
The Ron Clark Academy is located in southeast Atlanta and accommodates 5th through 8th grade. Each classroom provides students with technology such as notebook computers, interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, projectors, and audio video equipment. In addition to the technologically-equipped classrooms, the school provides students with accessible amenities such as a recording studio, a darkroom, a two-story vaulted ceiling library, a gymnasium, and a dance studio.
To find out more about the Ron Clark Academy please click here
ABOUT THE PROJECT
A class at Portfolio Center created packaging for The Learning Tea, a project that will help children in Darjeeling, India have prospects for a better future. Atlanta business-owner Katrell Christie will donate 100 percent of the proceeds from this tea to to help better the lives of the children she’d met while spending time at both a Darjeeling orphanage and a elementary school, one of the oldest schools in Darjeeling.For 2010, Christie has pledged to buy uniforms and put a working toilet in at elementary school. She also has committed to fully funding the education of three orphan girls a year at a nearby Darjeeling university.
CHALLENGE
Since Christie will bring 100 percent of the profits back to India, the packaging had to be low-cost and easily reproducible. All the student teams were deeply motivated by the chance to utilize design in a way that will have an impact on the lives of children a world away.
SOLUTION
The winning team, consisting of Matheus Meneghel, Hunter Grove and Brian Marcus came up with inventive packaging that captures the story of the tea. The packaging helped Katrell sell out her first shipment of tea. The design also was a big factor in convincing Whole Foods to pick up the tea nationally in the fall.
Jess Hunt tells the story of The Learning Tea and Katrell’s first trip to India in a new article on Purge.com.
To read the article on Purge.com please click here Thank you for all of your support!
Glenburn Tea Estate has graciously donated tea to The Learning Tea after hearing about the great work The Learning Tea does in the Darjeeling community. The sales of the donated tea will go directly to funding The Learning Tea’s life scholarship program.
Started by a Scottish tea company in 1859, Glenburn has now passed into the hands of one of India’s pioneering tea planting families – The Prakashes, who have over the years come to be known as the “Chaiwala family” – which literally means “tea planters”.
The Glenburn Tea Estate spans 1000 acres in Darjeeling and has two rivers which run through the grounds. Tourists can visit and stay in the estate’s colonial style bungalows where they can enjoy a peaceful vacation surrounded by the beautiful tea plantation.
For more information about the Glenburn Tea Estate visit www.glenburnteaestate.com
Article features Dr. Bombays Underwater Tea Party/ The Learning Tea. The Article describes areas of Atlanta with exceptional Teas. The Learning Tea uses Darjeeling Tea to raise money and awareness for our mission to provide life scholarships to impoverished young women in Darjeeling.