Colourful bags at Tea Tang that are brightening lives

The Tea Tang boutique on Havelock Road, just past the Thunmulla junction has as you would expect – an array of tea in its shop window. Curiously enough –it has also displayed invitingly – a selection of colourful bags. If you do walk in, you won’t regret it for the tea and paintings by artist Sangabo Dias apart, these are designs entirely worthy of a closer inspection. Made of bright and sturdy handloom, the bags are beautifully stitched by craftswomen from different parts of the country. Empowering these craftswomen through ‘Shakti’ as this Tea Tang CSR project is called, began one and a half years ago when Nimmi Mendis Amarasuriya was on holiday here from Singapore. Told of some needy women looking for a means of livelihood when she was in Ahungalle, she looked for a way to help. Nimmi and her mother Keerthi Mendis had been following a course in patchwork and quilting with a Japanese expert Sawako Chan and Nimmi had a brainwave. Read more on this story here