Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Funky ‘rice’ bags help Khmer lives

The Gisborne Herald (New Zealand)
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
By Darnelle Timbs

Khmer Life is a vocational training project in Cambodia that provides poor people with training and employment in handicraft production. Darnelle Timbs discovered Khmer Life while living and working in rural Cambodia. Inspired by the project, she has brought the products home with her to Gisborne.

“No way! There are those colourful, groovy-looking bags I saw in that fancy shop in England,” I thought to myself as I passed by a store on my old hired bicycle.

I was in the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia on my way to see the Angkor temples (one of the wonders of the world) when I got side-tracked. The delightful shop assistant explained how the women who make these bags work in decent conditions so the products are not at sweatshop prices.

My ears pricked up. I had heard countless stories about the horrendous working conditions of the garment workers of Cambodia. Cheap labour for garment production is a big industry in the country, so I was interested to hear of a company that was fighting the trend.

The shop assistant continued to explain that the material used for the bags was recycled rice sacks.I’m a sucker for a good cause, so something combining recycled materials with social responsibility was ideal.

“Right,” I asked, “where is this workshop? I might like to sell some of these in my home country.”

I made friends with the assistant and she gave me her details, explaining that the workshop was in the capital city Phnom Penh, near the Genocide Museum.

Three weeks later on my next break from work I headed to Phnom Penh to extend my travel visa.

After seeing the horrors of the Genocide Museum, also known as S-21 — the high school that became a torture centre during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975-79 — I visited the neighbouring Khmer Life outlet shop.

I got chatting to the manager and I told him about my interest in his product. In line with Cambodian hospitality, he offered to take me on his motorbike to visit the workshop.

It was an awesome experience. He introduced me to all the workers and explained their disadvantaged backgrounds.

The profits of their work are used to pay for the employees to live at the workshop, eat there and attend university.

A tag on the bags reads: “The profit we make is ploughed back into the project, helping us to extend the opportunities we provide to disadvantaged people.”

I loved the philosophy.

I had already maxed out my overdraft to stay in Cambodia to volunteer for a rural development organisation, so I went ahead and maxed out my credit card on a box of bags.

It was a complete gamble, but I have a tendency to trust my gut feeling above logic.

Alongside my belief in the philosophy of the company; I lived in the rural areas of Cambodia for months and these rice sacks featured in my daily life — my family used one to store the charcoal for our cooking fire, the farmers would use them for housing materials, they were always in the markets, strapped on to bicycles, used to build dams and loaded on to trucks: everywhere, every day.

Besides being a good cause, these products are fun, bright, funky and perfect for a Gisborne summer.

The Khmer Life manager explained how they have taken off in the UK, USA and Australia, so I think he was pleasantly surprised to have a random New Zealander track him down and want to meet his workers.

If you want to support Khmer Life, the bags are for sale at Retro in the Ballance Street Village.

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