Our team
Bindhu
Bindhu is the first to join our team and to have been introduced to tea making in 2018. Today, she in turn trains the women working with us. This widowed woman is raising her two children on her own and caring for her elderly, but still active mother. Before joining us, Bindhu worked day laborers in tea plantations, rice paddies and construction sites. She worked for a ridiculous sum of 3 to 6 euros a day. By joining Solidestinations, she has the right to a real employment contract and a guaranteed monthly salary .
Technical manager of the plantation and tea rolling machine
Shalini was recruited in 2018 on a part-time basis, in parallel with her studies in Accounting. After completing her degree, she is now pursuing a master's degree by correspondence and works full-time with Solidestinations as Executive Assistant and Project Manager . Shalini is the oldest in a family of 2 children, whose mother is widowed and unemployed since the death of an abusive husband when Shalini was 12 years old. Shalini is keen on a career with Solidestinations and we hope she can take over the leadership of Gudalur's local workshop one day!
Shalini
Project and administration manager
Nisha arrived in 2019 and has two children aged thirteen and eight. I t was recruited and formed by Bindhu. She is also a day worker. Her painter husband works just like her, by the day. Nisha and her husband managed to educate their grown-up daughter in a drinking school and in English. It's a huge effort, because in general, children from poor families go to communal school in Tamil.
In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.
In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.
Nisha
Responsible for stock, quality control and tea rolling machine
Anusha
Anusha is Bindhu's daughter, without benchmarks and supervision while her mother was working, she failed to enter University in 2019 after obtaining her Bac. We spotted her during certain events organized by Solidestinations, for her strong character, her boundless energy and her ability to take care of children. A sponsorship offered by one of our travelers enabled her to register for a Social Work License . At the same time, she follows an apprenticeship with Solidestinations on children's animation and accounting.
In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.
Administrative assistant and in charge of children's animation
Jeyamani
In charge of maintenance and meals
Jeyamani , like all plantation daughters born in the 1960s, started working at the age of 14, following her mother through the plantations. She was later married to a man from the same community: a tea plantation worker. Despite the birth of her three children, she, like all the women of the plantations, was waiting until the last moment to go to the hospital. Yet she held on for 30 long years of hard work. But no retirement for these people, you have to work until the children are able to support the parents. Unfortunately this is not the case with Jeyamani. That's why she joined the organization, looking for a job to help her sick husband, children and grandchildren. With Solidestinations , she can hope to train and have a reliable employment contract .
Albert
Originally from South India (Tamil Nadu), Albert was adopted by a French family and grew up there at the age of 8. He therefore has dual Indian / French nationality.
His initial training is psychology. He worked for 15 years in France with the state social services and several non-profit social development organizations. He then joined humanitarian aid, on education and protection programs for children and women.
In 2011 , he left the humanitarian and discovered solidarity tourism. It was then that he reconciled his different skills to create , with Alexis, Solidestinations , a tourism company based on the social and solidarity economy and fair trade .
Director
Alexis
Director and technical advisor of the plantation
Alexis is trained as a farmer and an industrial maintenance technician.
It was by integrating a job in Lyon that Alexis discovered alternative consumption and the preservation of the environment. It was also in Lyon that he met Albert ROCHET who introduced him to solidarity tourism and fair trade. Together they will create Solidestinations Sri Lanka and then Solidestinations India. In 2015 Alexis created the Voyageurs Solidaires association to support Solidestinations, then in 2018 Alexis joined the management of Solidestinations India. Meanwhile Alexis takes over his parents' farm which is approaching retirement. He then decides to convert the grain farm to organic farming. Every year Alexis goes to India to supervise the tea plantation project and provide technical expertise on the agricultural and agroforestry ecosystem of our plantations. It is also Alexis who maintains communication with the network of partners in France.