EcoZeal

Colorful bags made from rice sacks keep material out of the landfill and keep people employed. From World of Good.

“The global economic crisis has a human face. In Cambodia it’s not just people’s livelihoods at risk-it’s people’s lives” - UN Resident Coordinator, Douglas Broderick

Economy got you down?  Think you’ve got it bad?

Look at Cambodia and count your blessings.

In response to last fall’s spike in oil prices, 50% of Cambodian households were forced to cut back not on gas, but on food.

Still recovering from the atrocities of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970’s, the country’s economy remains tenuous at best.  About a third of Cambodia’s population lives below the national poverty level – and there’s no welfare system to fall back on. 

Reduced demand for products worldwide is hitting this Southeast Asian country hard – especially in the garment industry, where 60,000 workers have already lost their jobs.  And it’s not getting any easier.  Economists expect the Cambodian economy to shrink even more this year.

Women and children suffer the brunt of the downturn.  Sex trafficking and human slavery are pervasive.  Desperate families may pull their children out of school to work.  Higher food prices and lower wages are reflected in last year’s National Anthropometric Nutrition Survey, which showed an increase in acute malnutrition among poor urban preschoolers.

Fair Trade Cambodia

The sale of fair trade goods made by Cambodian workers helps keep families together with food on the table.  It’s especially important for women.  The opportunity to earn a living makes women less vulnerable to human trafficking, and allows them to raise healthy, well-nourished babies and children.

Many Cambodian fair trade items are both beautiful and ingenious.  Silk is the most common material.  Locally farmed silk is spun and woven in the rural villages, and transformed by artisans into rainbow-hued scarves, shawls, purses, little jewelry boxes and other accessories. 

Also popular are items made of discarded rice bags.  In southeast Asia, 25-pound rice sacks are made of colorful plastic fabric with eye-catching designs – a modern Asian version of the Depression flour sack.  But instead of curtains and quilts, Cambodian women stitch the sacks into striking and handsome bags and totes.

Listed below are just a few of many stores offering fair-trade items from Cambodia.

Retail:

Samatoa Silk Shop - men’s and women’s silk clothing; wedding and cocktail dresses.

Ten Thousand Villages – recycled rice bag totes and silver bracelet – items made by a fair trade cooperative employing people with disabilities.

Global Girlfriend – yoga mat bags in green, blue and orange made in a women’s cooperative in Cambodia. With each Recycled Rice Bag Yoga Mat Bag purchased, Global Girlfriend will fund 1.0 percent of a microgrant for a woman in a rural community in Africa to launch a small business, through Camfed. 

Wholesale:

Gecko Traders - silk bags and accessories, bags made from recycled rice bags.

Wild Boar Creek – silk scarves & shawls, purses, and bamboo/palm fans handmade by economically or otherwise disadvantaged Cambodians. Wild Boar Creek works directly with craftspeople in approximately 12 villages, and with several non-governmental organizations and handicraft shops.