Decorative item
One scarf, One skill
Our project for the textile industry in Cambodia
We have built the One scarf, One skill project around three founding pillars : ethics, economic development and the preservation of Cambodia’s crafts heritage. Ethics. It goes without saying. It is in agreement with our values not only to choose our sewing shops according to the highest ethical criteria, but also to value every weaver, every craftsperson with whom we work, to give them - how could it be different ? -, our greatest consideration, all our kindness and respect, to finally view them as the first partners of Krama Heritage. Thus : • All the weavers and craftspersons with whom we work are more than 18. • The working conditions are always dignified and respectful of the person. • The working pace is decent. • All the sewing shops with which we work present a safe working environment with no material danger for the person. • Social or food benefits or the possibility to work from home are offered to the weavers and craftspersons with whom we work. • Last, the working atmosphere at our partnering sewing shops’ is good, family-like and even happy. Economic development. Cambodia is sadly one of the poorest countries in the world, and we wish that Krama Heritage represent an opportunity of meaningful improvement of the living conditions for all the sewing shops, associations, companies, villages, weavers with whom we work as well as for their families. That the weaver or the craftsperson perceive a fair salary and remunerating to its merit the hand-work they realize is the condition of that economic development. That she can thus better cater for her family’s needs or send to school her children should be the result of that. That sewing shops develop themselves economically and recruit new weavers is also the aimed-for objective. Every one of our partnering sewing shops has their own operating mode, but seeing to that the weavers are well-remunerated is one of our first selection criteria. Thus, we work with two social companies and a fair-trade association. There also exist many family-like sewing shops in Cambodia like the one of our Typical Kramas the development stage of which is too little advanced so they can know the existence of certification organisations, yet it appears to us as essential to support them. At the condition, like it is the case, that are communicated to us in a totally transparent manner the working and pay conditions and that those meet our criteria. The preservation of Cambodia’s crafts heritage. Cambodia’s cultural and crafts heritage, the roots of which run deep into the Khmer empire immemorial times, is of a richness unique in the world. Safe-guarding it is even safe-guarding an important share of the world’s cultural and crafts heritage. Hand-weaving, which requires savoir-faire, meticulousness, dexterity, patience is an ever-more-rare practice. The impressive ancestral weaving looms that make it possible are also part of our common heritage. Moreover, while the Khmer rouges have destroyed a large part of Cambodia’s cultural heritage only fourty years ago, and while Cambodia is today making a leap into modernity, ancestral crafts must be preserved within Cambodia itself. That is the vision that share all our partnering sewing shops : contributing to the beaming and to the realisation of that vision is the mission we gave ourselves. We are proud to support today 447 weavers and craftspersons in Cambodia and to contribute to the development of 28 different sewing shops, from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh passing by the Takeo province. Our project started only with one partnering sewing shop in Phnom Penh and, in only three years, stretched to include dozens of sewing shops and hundreds of weavers. To have humanly-rich and warm exchanges with all our sewing shops is also inseparable from our philosophy. We are proud to be able to be today the first economic partner of numerous of our sewing shops in terms of production and economic and social fallout for the weavers employed. And this is only the begining !
