Ethical businesses in Cambodia: Making money, helping people

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Ethical businesses in Cambodia: Making money, helping people

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Beyond Fashion Revolution Week: The Eco-Friendly Jewellery Entrepreneur Changing Lives in Cambodia
24 April 2018
Written by Cassandra Ciarallo
So why am I here now?
Well, my passion for entrepreneurship led me to launch my eco jewellery line Chic Made Consciously shortly after my backpacking trip through Asia. Later in that journey (after Cambodia), I connected with an artisan group called Art Cycle Bali, who was repurposing tires into gorgeous fashion accessories. I was driven to start a business importing their beautiful handmade and fairly traded goods to North America and help their local artisan community.

So, I am here now in Cambodia with the intention to expand the business and product line. Chic Made Consciously is now working with a new community of artisans, part of Craftworks Cambodia...
Image
This week is Fashion Revolution Week and today is the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 people and injured 2,500, most were garment workers working in factories that manufactured clothing for the Western market. Anyway, I encourage you to think, connect and ask yourself questions about who you’re buying from, asking yourself “Who Made My Clothes”. We all play a role whether we choose to believe it or not. Customers like you buy from brands like mine and in so doing, we continue to supply these developing nations with a sustainable income and offer marginalized people dignity through work.
https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2018/04/ ... tion-week/
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Re: Ethical businesses in Cambodia: Making money, helping people

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good for you, admire what you're doing

Im trying to do something with same wi win in lodging
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May 18, 2018
Maybank Child Sponsorship @ People Improvement Organisation

Maybank last Saturday started its new child sponsorship programme in Cambodia. Around 52 underprivileged children were provided with opportunities to pursue their education as a way out of poverty. The sponsorship program entailed a monthly funding allocation to cover basic food and school support as well as special regular engagement sessions with Maybank employees.

“The Maybank Child Sponsorship programme resonates strongly with our role as a responsible corporate citizen. This programme, now in its sixth year, has proven to be a great success in fulfilling our commitment in empowering the communities in which we operate, to improve lives and contribute to the betterment of society in a sustainable and impactful manner,” said Chairman of Maybank Cambodia, Dato’ Johan Ariffin.

In addition to the child sponsorship, Maybank Cambodia will also be providing various forms of support to other students studying at the PIO Stung Meanchey School. PIO is an organisation which runs three schools and an orphanage for children who seek a living in garbage dumps or collect garbage around the streets of Phnom Penh. It also helps marginalised children deprived of the opportunity to access to education.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50490950/m ... anisation/
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Fashion goodness from Cambodia to Canterbury
Josie Steenhart05:00, Dec 19 2018
Koh Dach, also known as Silk Island, sits on the banks of the Mekong River, upstream from Phnom Penh. As the Western version of its name would suggest, it has a rich tradition in silk production and traditional weaving - in particular the creation of krama - the iconic, multipurpose scarf that's practically a national symbol in Cambodia.

Handwoven from either silk or cotton, krama date back to at least the Angkor period (802 to 1431AD), and Cambodians will proudly tell you there are more than 50 uses for them.

And it was the krama that provided a solution for Cantabrian Rebecca Parnham, who, having travelled to Cambodia in 2010, had been looking for a way to support women in need in a country still rebuilding after decades of civil war, genocide and poverty.

After an initial year or so involving a "huge amount of work", things have now settled into place for Krama & Co, and the brand has also just had a further boost, being picked up by ethical and sustainable retailer Tonic & Cloth.

"That's really exciting," says Parnham. "They are exactly what we're about, they're all about empowering women as well, all of their clients care about that already, and it will pretty much double our reach."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/fash ... canterbury
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Great story about positive action against poverty.
Japanese volunteer's initiative allows Cambodians to see future beyond dumps where they scavenged
by Magdalena Osumi
Jan 15, 2019
In Anlong Pi, a village on the outskirts of famous tourist destination Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia, a group of women gather each day to peel bark from 3-meter-long sections of banana tree trunks. The bark pulp taken during the process, akin to peeling onions, is steamed to recover fibers and then is chopped up and dried in the sun.

This is Kumae, a workshop where Japan-born Takuya Yamase, 25, offers impoverished Cambodians a chance to make a living by converting banana trees into paper and handmade crafts. To locals, Kumae serves as the sole alternative to eking out a living scavenging in a garbage dump.

In 2012, Yamase volunteered with a group of about 10 young Japanese in a Cambodian village to run a project aimed at distributing recycled clothes and stationery.

“I felt as if I were actually witnessing all those phenomena I had learned about in school during world history classes, and it shocked me,” Yamase said in an interview with The Japan Times during a brief recent return to Japan.

In 2013, he launched Kumae, an organization aimed at improving the standard of life in Anlong Pi, a little over 20 km from Siem Reap.

With two friends, Yamase started offering tours around Siem Reap as one way of providing jobs for locals as city guides.

Yamase would often visit a nearby garbage dump where he encountered young Anlong Pi villagers scavenging for recyclable waste.

One of the problems the village of Anlong Pi faced was waste management, as garbage was being delivered to it from Siem Reap, whose population exceeds 1 million.

The problem of piles of waste in the area was also highlighted in the World Bank Group’s Cambodia urbanization projects report compiled in August.

But Yamase pointed out that although the issue of scavengers draws international attention, they don’t get the help they need and hence they remain on the fringes of society.

“In the village, young people have no future prospects and to many, in fact, scavenging in rubbish dumps appears to be the highest paying job,” he said.

“These people needed a stable source of income,” Yamase said, adding that many of the poor he had surveyed said they chose to work at dump sites so they could stay close to their families.

Yamase, who has learned the Khmer language mainly by communicating with locals, accompanied the scavengers as they worked, listening to their life stories.

“After a month I was told not to come anymore,” he recalled. “Many people, including journalists, visit those places just to take photos, often forcing the people to look destitute to highlight the poverty, but then they just leave” without offering any solutions. This arrogance causes the villagers pain, he said.

Yamase knew their resentment and despair resulted from insufficient measures to deal with the region’s economic situation and lack of hope for a better future.

To give them a different way to earn money, he came up with the idea of asking villagers to make and sell handmade straw bags and misanga friendship bracelets from knitted embroidery floss, but that business failed, Yamase said.

Then he learned about a group supporting impoverished people in Africa by engaging them in the production of paper from banana trees, so he decided to launch a similar project in Anlong Pi.

Yamase bought a parcel of land and built a workshop to process banana tree trunks into paper, and using the product, create craft works such as fancy pouches and stationery items to sell as souvenirs to tourists.

Currently about 10 women aged 19 to 37 process as many as 20 banana tree trunks a day and turn them into banana paper crafts. Each earns the equivalent of about $75 to $105 a month. Five other Cambodians sell the crafts at stores in Siem Reap.

Since its opening, the banana paper workshop has served not only as an employment opportunity but also as a safe haven for vulnerable youth.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/ ... D3khy1S_IU
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Re: Ethical businesses in Cambodia: Making money, helping people

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Got some New Zealand paua shells which are used to make jewelry. They are renown for their brighter colour over other type of shells.

Anyone know a handicraft person that would like them for free.


http://www.pauaworld.com/paua/
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
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The backpack ‘social entrepreneurs’ giving back to Cambodian students
Alastair McCready | Publication date 22 January 2019 | 15:06 ICT
When Canadian siblings Anika and Michael Funk founded ethically focused travel company Banana Backpacks in 2017, they had a very clear vision for what they intended to accomplish.

“We wanted to address a problem we’ve both encountered when travelling – a lack of high-quality, practical traveller’s backpacks – while also incorporating a deeper purpose; a social mission offering customers the opportunity to give back,” Anika tells The Post, sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Phnom Penh.

It was in Cambodia – where Anika travelled and worked in her early 20s, before returning early last year to take up her current position working in the field of development – in which she identified exactly what this social cause would be.

“My time in Cambodia really stayed with me, especially people’s warmth considering their tragic recent history. The legacy of that time can still be seen today, and witnessing firsthand the barriers to education many Cambodian children continue to face due to poverty, I knew that would be our cause,” the 27-year-old says.

It was for this reason that Banana Backpacks partnered with local NGO Caring for Cambodia (CfC), which since 2003 has trained teachers, provided educational tools and removed barriers to learning for pre-school to high school-aged children.

While Cambodia has made great strides since the country was decimated by decades of war and the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, extreme poverty, particularly in rural provinces, remains common. As a result, almost a quarter of Cambodian children aged seven to 14 are forced to leave school to work and support their families, according to Unesco.

But as part of their partnership, Banana Backpacks donates to CfC for every Khmer Explorer Travel Set sold, with the funds used to provide a full year’s free school meals to a child to help ease the financial burden of sending them to school.

In addition, each bag comes with its own unique touch to give the buyer a sense of connection with the project.

“The name of the child whose education has been personally supported by the purchase is embroidered on the heart strap [the left hand side, nearest the heart] of the bag in Khmer – we felt it was important to create the connection,” Anika says.

The rise of the social enterprise has continued unabated in recent years, spurred on by increasingly socially conscious consumers who wish to see businesses make a positive contribution to society.

Consequently, the Funks are among a growing cohort of young social entrepreneurs – innovators straddling the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors – connecting enterprise with social causes.

“I think there’s a misconception that only charities are capable of positively contributing to society,” Anika says. “But I believe in harnessing many of the good aspects of business, such as creating jobs and economic development, and directing that towards a good purpose.”
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-life ... n-students
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Dorsu: Stylish, Affordable Ethical Clothing for Work, Rest and Play
ByEco Warrior Princess - March 24, 2019

There is a big misconception that ethical fashion is expensive. While there are some ethical brands with high price tags that only luxury-conscious shoppers can afford, there are others who aim to make stylish ethical fashion accessible to all conscious consumers. Cue, Dorsu.

This small business designs and ethically produces men’s and women’s collections of timeless, versatile pieces and everyday basics in their very own production studio in Kampot, Cambodia. What began has a humble two-person operation has grown to a team of 25.
In full: https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2019/03/ ... hing-work/

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/ ... ay-147013/
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Re: Ethical businesses in Cambodia: Making money, helping people

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Shopping in the US or online to help Cambodian women:

Empowering Threads: Red Dirt Road Store Ties Charlevoix to Cambodia
July 23, 2019
Christine Kanerva, Catherine Emery
You can help empower women in Cambodia by shopping at a pop-up store now open in Charlevoix.

Red Dirt Road is a nonprofit created by two Northern Michigan women.

They both shared the same goal: to get Cambodian women out of working in dangerous garment factories and instead teach them to become independent accessory designers.

Since then, Lin Alessio says Red Dirt Road has grown to sell beautifully-crafted handbags, scarves and other accessories all around the U.S.

“Red Dirt Road is all about quality of life for them and for you,” she says. “It’s creating a product that’s not a charity, this is a product that you want to have because it works for you. Because it makes your life better and you feel more elegant when you carry it.”

The pop-up shop will be open this week during the Charlevoix Venetian Festival.

But if you can’t make it to Charlevoix, Red Dirt Road also has an online store at red-dirt-road.org.
https://www.9and10news.com/2019/07/23/e ... -cambodia/
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The ‘krama princess’ aspiring to preserve iconic national scarf
Soung Sovanny | Publication date 26 August 2019 | 20:59 ICT
Image
Her face can be seen on billboards, social network sites, television and the silver screen, while she also champions the Helping Kantha Bopha Hospitals campaign and the USAID-funded Cambodia Countering Trafficking-in-Persons (CTIP) project.

Known as ‘Krama Princess’, Mean Sonyta is a famous celebrity, the face of big brand products and a USAID CTIP goodwill ambassador. Despite her tightly packed schedule, her love of Cambodia’s national scarf the krama means she dedicates yet more time to preserving this iconic garment through her social enterprise.

“At first I just wanted to have my own project related to Khmer culture and identity. It all begin in late March around the Khmer New Year season. I thought of using krama to make hair bands, outfits and other stuff that basically most people can’t do without having to go to the tailor,” she said.

“I had never thought of turning krama fabric into fashion wear until I was strongly urged by my friends and fans to sell krama clothing.”

Speaking to The Post at her workshop filled with krama fabric, the 28-year-old celebrity described her motivation to start the endeavour is a lack of locally made goods and products in the Kingdom.

“I went to Angkor and other tourism destinations several times and what I saw made me embarrassed; souvenirs and other products on display that are imported from Thailand, Vietnam and China. The imported goods bear the Angkor Wat logo along with ‘Made in Cambodia’. I asked the seller whether they made them and they admitted they were imported,” Sonyta recalled.

“I want to ask everyone that if we don’t start with ourselves, who else is going to help us. Most people import products that are just made to look like local goods. This is the root causes of Cambodian people migrating abroad to work. If many people continue to sell imported products, our country has less jobs [in manufacturing].”
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/lifestyle ... onal-scarf
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