Do you drink Assam tea? This special tea is farmed exclusively in a remote region covered in tropical lowlands, nestled in the far northeast of India. Known for its bold, full-bodied flavor and bright amber color, Assam tea is considered the perfect, malty breakfast drink, often served to royalty at Buckingham Palace. 

Assam tea is named after its birthplace – Assam, India – one of the world's most prolific tea-producing regions, generating over half the country’s tea. While Assam exports over 20 million kilograms of tea per month (enough to brew 10 billion cups of tea), Assam also imports a devastatingly high number of human lives, accounting for more than 22% of the total reported cases of trafficking across all of India.  Assam lies at the borders of 9 different geographic entities – an interlocked location that, combined with a high demand for tea-harvesting laborers, renders the region an epicenter of trafficking across country borders.

Embers International has partnered with Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), a highly respected hospital network, to serve the marginalized in one of EHA’s most isolated locations: Burrows Memorial Christian Hospital. A nonprofit dedicated to serving the rural poor and socially disadvantaged in India, EHA’s Burrows Memorial Christian Hospital in Assam provides medical attention to the unemployed, daily-wage workers, and victims of sex trafficking, offering desperately-needed care to those vulnerable to exploitation. No patient is turned away, even if poor and unable to pay.

COVID-19’s massive second wave in India has left the nation in urgent need of oxygen generators to help critically ill patients breathe. In cities, overcrowded hospitals with limited medical-grade oxygen have resorted to giving patients steroids to reduce lung inflammation and ease breathing – a desperate alternative that has led to massive outbreaks of deadly “black fungus” disease. In rural areas like Assam, limited transportation isolates hospitals from receiving the oxygen they need to keep their patients alive.

Embers is raising funds to build a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plant to serve survivors of trafficking and the marginalized in Assam at EHA’s Burrows Memorial Christian Hospital.  Two anonymous American donors have generously pledged to double all contributions from now until July 31st. Starting today, your gifts will be matched up to $50,000. 
 
Will you join our Oxygen Project and help us build the foundation to care for one of the most exploited populations of India ­– to transform an epicenter of human trafficking into a place of hope? 

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