Kommaly

Phontong Handicrafts Cooperativea
Kommaly Chanthavong was born in 1947 in northern Laos. Kommaly’s childhood was colored by war because she lived on the border between regions held by the conflicting Vietnamese and French powers in the First Indochina War. At age 13, Kommaly’s hopes for a better future compelled her to leave her family and flee to the capital city of Laos, Vientiane, where her uncle adopted her.

Starting a new life in the big city was challenging, but Kommaly was excited to attend school and eventually she earned a scholarship to study nursing. In addition to studying, Kommaly wove and sold cloth to contribute to the household and pay for her education. She worked hard as her country and family continued to struggle with the violence that followed the First Indochina War.

In 1972, Kommaly married Noulieme Chanthavong and they started a family. To support her growing household, she left nursing to follow her entrepreneurial spirit and opened an import-export business. The communist revolution in 1975 brought many changes as the Laotian economy slowed and more of Kommaly’s relatives left the country, bringing a time of great hardship. Kommaly wrestled with depression that only began to heal when she formed a weaving group of ten women in Phontong Village. The women came to her house daily to weave, eat lunch and support each other.

Phontong Handicrafts Cooperative officially formed in 1980. Today Phontong Handicrafts works with Lao weavers and basket makers in lowland villages around the capital city. The group provides weaving lessons and free raw materials, helping to revive the art of traditional Laotian weaving. The craftswomen bring valuable additional income to their households by interspersing weaving with housework and childcare. Kommaly also runs a silk farm that supplies the silk for Ten Thousand Villages products. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased from the craftswomen at Phontong Handicrafts Cooperative since 1989. Today, Kommaly says, “My passion remains the same…to help the [artisans] to help themselves.”

Illies Mouhmoud

Union of Peasants for Self Develop

In 1993, young craftspeople in Terhazer, a village near Agadez, Niger, organized to create leather handicrafts and silver jewelry. After traveling through France, selling from a backpack for several years, Illies Mouhmoud and his friends organized formally and began UPAP/Tanakra in 1999. Artisans working with UPAP/Tanakra make traditional Tuareg jewelry and use the income they make to supplement their subsistence farming and other livelihoods. Ten Thousand Villages purchases silver jewelry from UPAP/Tanakra. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from UPAP/Tanakra since 2002.

 

Made Resmini, 25, Nyoman Suarji, 35, and Luh Ari, 22, place waru leaves in over-lapping patterns to create decoupage journals.

Preserving Nature as well as Memories

Made Resmini and her husband, Gede Budi, own a small workshop in the rural village of Bulian, Bali, Indonesia. Here, they work with a handful of women to create handsome journals, picture frames, and other items from the natural materials that grow around them.

Resmini and Budi export the crafts these women make through Mitra Bali, a Ten Thousand Villages artisan partner since 1989. Mitra Bali provides artisans with free design assistance, business training and a savings fund.

 

A documentary video, "Kalamkari: Art and Livelihood" is available from Ten Thousand Villages by calling Mennonite Central Committee at 717-859-1151.

 

Michée Rémy earns vital income creating cut-metal sculptures.

The Art of Recycling

Comite Artisanat Haiti (CAH) is a cooperative based in Port-au-Prince that links Haitian artisans with alternative trade organizations, including Ten Thousand Villages in North America.
Artisans in the village of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, make unique cut-metal sculptures by pounding flat 50-gallon drums and cutting traditional motifs with a chisel and hammer.

Huynh Thi Sanh works on a doll in front of her son's house. Photo By Matthew Lester (MCC)

Job Satisfaction at Age 75

At age 75, Huynh Thi Sanh radiates resilience and determination. After losing her husband during the “American” War, she spent years of hard labor to support her five children. Now she works for Mai Handicrafts, making Ten Thousand Villages’ best selling traditionally
dressed dolls at home where she lives with her son and his family. She has traded a life of hard labor for the joy of watching her twelve-year-old grandson grow and dream of becoming an architect.
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Mai Handicrafts works with more than 150 artisans. The majority of artisans are women and ethnic minority groups. Social workers Thai Thi Le Khanh and Le Phuong My started the program in 1990 to help children who lacked the legal papers and tuition to attend school.

Now that all children are admitted to formal school for free, Mai Handicrafts provides work for their mothers and sisters to improve family income and well being. My and Khanh both exhibit a deep dedication to fair trade. Their hard work and sincerity is truly making a difference in the lives of artisans.

 

Eulogio Medina and Guillermina Salome live and operate Medina Handicrafts in the central Andes town of Cochas, Peru, where villagers are famous for their enraved gourd work.

Village Entrepreneurs

Gourd engraving is an art form that South Americans have been perfecting for nearly 4,000 years. In the Andes village of Cochas, Peru, Eulogio Medina, his wife Guillermina Salome, and their son, Tito, operate Medina Handicrafts, which exports gourd ornaments and musical instruments through Allpa and Manos Amigas, long-standing Ten Thousand Villages artisan partners.

Medina Handicrafts employs as many as 20 artisans at a time in their engraving workshop. Artisans working at Medina Handicrafts have a source of stable income and are able to send their children to school.

Farmers in the northern coastal town of Chiclayo plant and harvest gourds for Medina Handicrafts, giving them a local market and job stability in their home community.