Ajiri Tea Company and the Ajiri Foundation are built on relationships. To do this, one has to be open. How can we better assist the women who make the packaging if we don’t know about their lives and some of their financial challenges? And how can we expect a child to tell us their problems at home or at school if they only know us as one-dimensional authority figures? If we can envision a new kind of company—one that gives all of its profits away—then we can envision a new kind of company culture—one that puts our very humanness in the forefront.

Difna shares with all of our students that she is an orphan. She tells them each of her struggles, her grief. She presents her hardship openly and empathizes with our students deeply. Regina is one of 10 children. Many of her brothers and sisters and even her aging parents have all helped Ajiri scholars. When a scholar is in an unsafe home-life situation, they have found refuge at Regina’s parents’ rural home or her sister’s house. 

This level of involvement may not be "professional," but it is profoundly personal. A lot of problems can be solved with money. But our students aren’t problems to be solved. They are children yearning to be understood. Your donations and your orders are the shade and predictability of an avocado tree under which we all can gather. 


Asante sana,

Kate, Regina, Sara, Difna, and Ann