We live in a time when the advertising buzzwords "sustainable" and "green" are often misused. "Greenwashing" is more prevalent than ever – the practice of deliberately disseminating information and content to give a company an environmentally friendly and responsible image in the public eye, without sufficient foundation.
With all this misinformation and half-truths, it is more important than ever to us that our customers have genuine trust in our products – especially because we consider them partners in our work.
We want to make it clear that teemana isn't like other companies that aim to create a superficially positive image in order to sell more products. Quite the opposite – since our founding, our goal has been to offer wonderful natural products and thereby bring more positive change into the world. To avoid offering you empty promises and platitudes, we'd like to give you a little insight into how we're bringing about real change with your help.
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What does teemana stand for?
Behind teemana are a whole range of values with which we identify. These include:
- Social projects : We want to support small businesses in Germany and encourage sustainable agriculture. The proceeds, in turn, allow us to support development aid projects of our partners in Africa and Asia.
- Ecological and sustainable : The products we sell are tested for harmful substances and pesticides.
- Political commitment : In the fight against the EU lobby, we are steadfastly committed to ensuring that Artemisia annua products remain accessible to everyone.
- Advocacy : We stand for fairness and equal opportunities. Therefore, we want to provide access to Artemisia annua products to those in need worldwide, even those with limited financial means.
- Transparency : Transparent production: Through publicly accessible on-site seminars, you can get an idea of the teemana cultivation and production conditions for yourself.
- Networking : We maintain close contact with scientists from all over the world to ensure the highest quality based on the latest scientific findings.
This is how we support projects all over the world:
Our goal is to ensure that even people living and working in the most basic conditions can meet their healthcare needs independently and with locally available resources. But how do you contribute to this when you shop at teemana? A significant portion of the proceeds is used to support teemana partner organizations and aid organizations worldwide. These include:
fundraising campaigns
In close cooperation with our partner organizations , we support people in developing countries and crisis areas . For example, we were able to support a children's home in Tanzania with a donation of Moringa oleifera.
Following the devastating Cyclone Idai in 2019, which flooded 3,500 square kilometers in Mozambique, our partners provided relief through a donation of Artemisia annua. The cyclone's impacts affected several million people, particularly in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and resulted in over 1,000 deaths.
In the future, such climate disasters are expected to occur more frequently, as the effects of climate change will be felt most strongly in regions with extreme temperatures.
In this picture, an aid organization is transporting our A-3 harvest from South Africa to the flood-hit area in Mozambique.
Artemisia annua donation for the flood victims in Mozambique
Additionally, our partners are committed to helping local communities in various countries, including Malawi, Kenya, Eritrea, the Philippines, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gabon, and many more. In Congo, they even received additional support from GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation) to spread knowledge about A-3 and establish A-3 fields in 2023. In the photo below, you can see Sister Daya in her Artemisia annua garden in Assam, India.
Seminars
Our partner organizations regularly hold seminars in the tropics. These seminars primarily train multipliers and build local networks. The image below shows one such seminar, which took place in July 2023 in Kisessa / Mwanza, Tanzania .
Seminar on cultivation, drying and storage of Artemisia annua
Bishop Mgeni Rasmi receives an Artemisia annua anamed (A-3) plant
Seminar in the garden of the Charnabera Training Center (India) on the cultivation of Artemisia annua
Artemisia annua field in Uganda
High quality at fair prices: How we support small, sustainable businesses
As you can see in the image below, our high-quality Moringa oleifera leaf cuttings are grown under controlled conditions on Lake Victoria in Tanzania, Africa , far away from any industrial environment. The climate in this region is optimal, characterized by abundant sunny days and ideal temperatures—so natural that hippos and crocodiles would say goodnight to each other there. Despite the ideal growing conditions, all our products undergo regular microbiological testing upon arrival in Germany by an independent German testing laboratory, which checks the goods for quality, pollutants, and heavy metals. The results are well below the permissible limits.
Drying of Moringa oleifera at our partner farm in Tanzania
When Africa sells goods to Europe today, prices are rock bottom. This is partly due to the fact that it is common practice in conventional trade to pay a small premium of 10 or 20% on top of the local market value. However, when we buy our moringa from Tanzania, we pay a premium of 3000%, or 30 times the local market value. Only in this way can our growers and harvesters there send their children to schools worthy of the name. We also source parts of our finely chopped lemongrass tea (lemongrass) from our partner farm in Malawi, in outstanding teemana quality.
Collective Moringa harvest in Tanzania
teemana - a good choice
As you can see, by purchasing from teemana you are not only supporting our small family business from Swabia, because a high percentage of the profit goes directly to our farmers in Germany (Artemisia), Tanzania (Moringa) and Malawi (lemongrass) to ensure they receive fair payment.
Behind teemana are real people – we mean it honestly and put our heart and soul into our work every day. Your help enables us to preserve creation by cultivating and using truly sustainable and ethical products.
We don't want to convince you with empty advertising promises, but rather rely on transparency, authenticity, integrity and approachability.
If our values resonate with you, we would be delighted to welcome your support. If you feel the need to support our international partners' projects even more directly through donations, please don't hesitate to contact us personally. We will be happy to refer you to ensure your generous donation always ends up in the right hands.
