Help to harvest wild tea in the mountains in Ha Giang Province, Vietnam

Details

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  Description

  The socio-economic situation of our community:
  
  Long ago, what is now southern China and northern Vietnam made up a region known as Bach Viet, or Baiyue - meaning hundreds of Viet tribes. Our Baiyue tribes living in this area are still here today- many groups with the same ancestral background living on either side of the border
  
  Our region is considered as homeland of snow shan tea, where the tea plant has its origins, where tea grows "wild", thriving and interleaving herbal plans as cinnamon, cardamom, species of the genus panax, etc in the high mountain rangers covered with snow and dew. The mountain ranges surrounded by peaceful villages of Baiyue tribes, these tribes, with a lifestyle, a language, traditions, moral standards and a specific foodstuff.
  These tribes grew rice on burned land and flooded fields and raised buffaloes, goat, horse, pigs and harvest, produce precious tea, herbal medicine.
  
  They have many different ethnic groups like Red Dzao, Nung, Tay, C'lao, La Chi, Bo Y, Lo Lo, Pa Then, H'mong, but they shared some common traits and have been living as descendants of Thần Nông (Shennong - Divine Farmer) family since ancient times, they believe that Shennong has been thought to have taught us practices of agriculture.
  They have sustained the wild tea mountains for generations and hope continue to live well alongside these forests is key for long-term survival and well-being.
  
  Despite an unique array of potential products from this region along with the precious practices in harvesting cultivation, processing of indigenous tea and medicinal plants make valuable contributions to the for the tea and herbal medicine sector, but they struggle to make their treasure financially viable. Local farmers are increasingly faced with a mix of challenges, including those that are naturally occurring and those that are caused by man, that influence their capacity to increase production and move towards profitable farming systems which threaten their livelihoods, such as:
  
  They completely lack access to profitable, value-added markets, and many struggle to link consistently to ethical buyers. Our society runs on tea, smallholder tea farmer - distributor relationships should be drive long-term business for their traditional products, but farmers rarely earn a living wage (despite their tea products are selling on global market with a expensive price).
  
  In fact, there have been a increasing number of foreign companies (Taiwan, China, Japan) in recent years in this region. This tea colonists companies had not been sustainable with questionable business connections, unfair business practices and transparency issues. High production constraints in smallholder tea farmers also make agriculture unattractive to young people.
  
  There are enterprises bribe local government authorities to exercise eminent domain to break up competing operations and eliminate threats. Even worse, there were some government officials that own stakes in local cooperatives operations currently skim smallholder tea farmers from market opportunities and resell, they paid for local people who are irresponsibly cutting down the ancient trees to collect the buds for the White Fairy Tea. More badly, they have built their own reputation by skimming the fund resources (including State, International agencies grants for agricultural operations of vulnerable groups). These issues threaten local tea farmer's sustainable livelihoods and their indigenous knowledge; many young people stopped farming to join a group of city earners although they do not have enough the skills in hand.
  
  Local tea sector doesn’t create prosperity for all its inhabitants equitably. Something is deeply out of balance.
  
  ABOUT US
  
  Our organisation is a local cooperative which made up of tea experts, tea lovers, dedicated leaders, master of spirits (shaman) of local tribes and tea farmers across most the foot of tea mountain range,
  We are uniquely placed to bring the right partnerships together to achieve our vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea products and culture.
  
  WHAT WE DO
  
  We provide transparency about tea and build a more sustainable supply chain by empowering farmers and tea drinker/lovers will be drive long-term, systemic change across three thematic areas in tea – economics, culture and ethical tea partnerships.
  
  We seeking to partner with ethical, responsible organizations to make our world so inspiring through the “Tea Club”, “Tea House”, “Tea Talk”, “Tea Tour”, "Tea Bank", "Tea Art", "Tea Retreatment/Meditation" and program: “Tea Experiencing ”.
  
  We focus on building entrepreneurial capacities of local youth to exploit business opportunities, empowering them to start up small businesses at region as social enterprise with tea, herbal products and responsible tourism services like the "Experiencing tea and culture tours"

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Charity Work

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  Farmstay help

  Hospitality/Tourism

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  - Opportunities to discover lot of fantastic mountain scenery over the whole area, practice indigenous knowledge of Baiyue tribes.
  - Experience tea mountain ranges of Baiyue tribes where tea is grow "wild" and is harvested by the local people, and then bring unique tea gifts to your home.
  - Learning about tea sector, it may good for a startup business when back home (why not!).
  - Help with social impacts of local enterprise and live with descendants of Thần Nông ( Agricultural god).
  - Become member of and seasonal tea receiving when you back home

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  LONG TERM WORKAWAY OPPORTUNITY
  
  We’re looking for someone who believes in the mission and has exceptional drive for furthering our activity, including generating and testing new ideas.
  
  1. Help with digital marketing:
  
  Our clients, members and supporters come from all backgrounds and age groups and want to engage with us in different ways too. To offer the best possible service we need to provide seamless communication, consistent messages and accurate information.
  We use local microsites, social media and review sites to raise awareness of our services, Digital Marketing volunteers, you will test all tea products, experiencing all services of local enterprises to evaluate /feedback, help us maximise our message, keep content up to date and increase traffic to our sites.
  As part of a team of volunteers, you help us build social media channels and integrate on-line and off-line activity to best effect.
  
  2. Coordinators, assistant at Tea Spaces
  You are offered to help tea spaces of locals in the following activities:
  Assist with sales, reservations, and pre-arrival service
  Attend to reception desk responsibilities, including check-in, check out, and guest requests
  Recommend tea space services and facilities to tea lovers
  Aid in coordination of day-to-day operations of tea spaces and tea tours
  Provide online sales and marketing support through website updates, social media management, and review sites (e.g. traveladvisor.com)
  Update and develop promotional materials
  Maintain and ensure full customer satisfaction
  
  3. Help with English class for children and local startups
  
  By teaching English, you empower locals to communicate globally, access better job opportunities, and broaden their horizons.
  Community Building: Your presence strengthens community bonds and encourages collaboration.
  Interactive Lessons: Engage students through games, role-playing, and interactive exercises. Make learning fun!
  Practical English: Focus on everyday language skills—conversations, greetings, and basic grammar.
  Create a Positive Environment: Encourage participation, celebrate progress, and maintain a friendly atmosphere.
  Cultural Exchange: Organize cultural events, language exchanges, or cooking classes with tea. Encourage students to share their traditions.
  Explore Together: Visit local landmarks, markets, and historical sites. Learn alongside your students.
  Community Projects: Collaborate on community initiatives, awareness campaigns.
  
  
  REQUIRED SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS:
  
  - Bachelor’s degree
  - Experience in marketing
  - Experience in writing grant proposals, press releases, and fundraising letters
  - Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills
  - Ability to lead and motivate colleagues and volunteers
  - Strong attention to detail
  - Passion for research
  - Ability to successfully balance priorities while managing multiple tasks and planning big events.
  - Strong inter-personal skills, and experiences in working with a wide variety of people, cultural sensitivity.
  - Aware that the tolerance has been proposed as a necessary response to the global rise in cultural and religious diversity.
  - To be responsible and be disciplined.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  We cover daily meals and local transportation for works and working placement with well equipped furnitures, strong wifi, clean toilet,
  Locals and volunteers will prepare daily lunch and dinner with meat and vegetarian options.
  
  We not require fee from volunteers. but volunteers need to organise their sleep room, we help with booking a comfort and cheap guesthouse nearby

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  What else ...

  - Volleyball playing with locals (teanagers, pupils, teachers, farmers) every afternoon
  - Swimming at waterfall, stream nearby our tea house
  - Hiking to Holy mountain of Red Dao: Located more than two thousands meters above sea level, surrounded by terraced fields, further away were villages of Baiyue tribes. From the peaks, you will see a sea of cloud around the mountain at sunrise the sky seems to be closer with so many clouds to nurture the imagination. Holly mountain of Red Dao with “the nine steps of cloud”. Here you can find many unique traditional cultural values of the Red Dao, Tay, H'mong, Nung people.
  
  - Trekking around terraced fields (recognized as national heritage): Through the entire area you will pass huge areas of rice terraces, unspoilt nature and ethnic villages.
  
  - Dong Van Karst Global Geopark: Loop tour, designated by UNESCO as one of 77 sites with the important geological and cultural heritage. This geopark is littered with the ethereal karst formations that are nearly 400 million years old, and has two protected areas.
  
  - Researching in Old Stone Filed: This thousand year-old stone field inside the valley of Nam Dan has not been known widely by the visitors, but the beauty of the runic symbols on the rocks is very fascinating, The rocks here are various in types and design. They bear marks of the traditional beauty of the old art, as well as weather-beaten traces after a thousand years. Each stone represents a legend of ethnic groups about religion and beliefs, and their worship to the God and Ancestors.
  
  - Enjoy with Local Weekly Fair: Rather than a trading place, this is more of cultural and communal activity. The market is held every Sunday. People come here to buy some groceries, but mostly, this is the place for young people to meet up and have fun. It looks like a festival more than a market. Therefore, boys and girls prepare to go to the market the night before in order to arrive on time. They try to look their best by putting on their most beautiful clothes.
  
  - Join to Shamanic, Ritual Events:
  
  • The “Nhay lua” (fire jumping) ceremony of the Red Dao ethnic minority people in our region has been listed as a national intangible heritage.
  • Forest worship ceremony - special cultural heritage of Hmong, Nung, La Chi people: Apart from praying for a bumper crop and wealth, the forest worship ceremony of the Hmong, Nung, La Chi people here is also meant to cultivate a love for nature and the awareness of environmental protection in the community.
  • Shennong worship events: The Vietnamese have been living as descendants of the Shennong family since ancient times. In modern times we still drink fresh tea leafs as Shennong did. He also teaches us about farming and is the first people who perform the plowing ceremony. And we, Vietnamese, still perform the plowing ceremony during every lunar new year festival, thanksgiving for finish a crop with new rice products, both in families and national levels.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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