Two Days in the Nilgiris, Lessons for Everyday Life

When twenty women tea workers from Stanes Amalgamated Estates (SAE Ltd., Kotada and Welbeck Estates) travelled home from Ooty on 17 June 2026, they carried something of lasting value: practical knowledge on hygiene, nutrition, menstrual health and disease prevention, and a personal action plan to put it to work in their own households. The two-day training, titled "Healthy Worker, Healthy Family, Healthy Community", was organised by Fairtrade NAPP as part of its thematic work on gender and was led by external health expert Ms. Bharathy Balakrishnan.

The training responds to a simple insight: women are often the anchors of health in their families and communities, and when they have reliable health knowledge, its benefits travel well beyond one person. Instead of lectures, the programme used group discussions, community mapping, role plays, demonstrations and games, with multilingual facilitation ensuring that every participant could engage fully in the language she is most comfortable with.

Talking About Menstruation, Openly and with Dignity

One of the most valued outcomes of the training was the space it created to speak about menstrual health without hesitation. A dedicated session offered a safe platform where participants openly discussed the myths, misconceptions and social taboos that often surround menstruation. Through interactive discussions and role plays, the women came to recognise menstruation as a natural biological process and left with more positive attitudes towards menstrual hygiene and dignity, attitudes they can now model for daughters, sisters and neighbours.

Clean Hands and Safe Water, the First Line of Defence

Participants strengthened their everyday defences against illness by working through personal hygiene, handwashing practices, sanitation and safe water management. A community mapping exercise made this learning personal: the women identified environmental health concerns within their own workplaces and residential communities and discussed practical solutions they can act on themselves. What began as a map on paper became a shared to-do list for healthier surroundings.

A Healthy Plate That Fits the Household Budget

Good nutrition does not have to be expensive, and this message came through clearly in the sessions on nutrition and anaemia prevention. Through the hands-on Healthy Plate activity, participants learned how balanced meals can be prepared from affordable, locally available foods, and why a balanced diet matters in preventing iron-deficiency anaemia, a common concern for women. The exercise turned nutritional science into choices the women can make at the market and in the kitchen every day.

Making Prevention a Family Habit

Sessions on women and child health, immunisation and preventive healthcare widened the lens from the individual to the whole family. The Disease Prevention Relay, an energetic team game, helped participants absorb disease prevention practices while keeping the learning lively and memorable. Discussions on healthy lifestyle practices gave the women concrete ways to look after their children, their families and themselves before illness strikes rather than after.

From Participants to Health Advocates

Post-training assessments and participant feedback showed a marked improvement in knowledge and awareness across all the areas covered, from hygiene and safe water to nutrition, menstrual health and disease prevention. Just as importantly, participants demonstrated growing confidence in applying what they had learned and expressed a clear willingness to share key messages with family members and community peers. Each woman developed her own action plan during the closing exercises, a practical bridge between the training room and daily life that positions the participants as advocates for better health in their communities.

Voices from the Training

"These two days of training were very useful to us. We were motivated to stay healthy. We learned about diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies and the methods to prevent them."

- Ms. Usha, Worker, SAE Ltd., Kotada and Welbeck Estates

"The training workshop was highly informative and beneficial for us. The sessions were conducted in a simple and easy to understand manner, which helped us learn many important aspects related to health and well-being. The training provided practical insights that will be useful in our daily lives."

- Ms. Sunita, Worker, SAE Ltd., Kotada and Welbeck Estates

Carrying the Learning Home

Healthy habits grow strongest with steady care, and the action plans developed by each participant give this training a life beyond the two days in Ooty. Fairtrade NAPP will continue to work alongside Stanes Amalgamated Estates through follow-up and reinforcement activities that support the adoption of healthy behaviours at the individual, family and community levels. As the women share what they have learned with their peers, the circle of health knowledge on the estates keeps widening, one household at a time. For Fairtrade NAPP, this training is one step on a longer journey towards the wellbeing of the women who are at the heart of the tea sector.