Chiang Mai September 2009 WEAVE, in collaboration with its local partners composed mainly of displaced and refugee women on the Thai-Burma borders, has developed a project that will provide safe employment, promote production and marketing of locally-produced handicrafts, improve food security and reduce dependency on refugee ration.
WEAVE’s coordinated project which is entitled, Together Responding to Economic Advancement and Development (TREAD), is now looking for kindred individuals or organizations as partners in pursuing this venture which will contribute to the development of safe employment through livelihood activities as a stated goal of WEAVE and as identified in the CCSDPT-UNCHR Comprehensive Plan.
The project aims to establish a Resource Centre that will cater for ongoing and potential small-scale businesses. The centre will be manned by skilled Business Development Specialists, who will work closely with individuals and groups in the provision of skills training, production, micro-finance and marketing, to nurture their skills and development at every stage of the business towards the achievement of their dreams and aspirations. The centre, where a library of resource materials will be made available, shall provide regular professional advice on a wide range of areas such as product packaging, pricing, customer related services and marketing. Series of formal and non-formal trainings will also be conducted for the staff and its partner organizations.
Project partners and beneficiaries, largely women, will have access to economic and financial literacy training which will be provided by the centre. The idea is that individuals, through the centre, shall have been able to gain basic financial management skills enabling them to manage their household income better and to invest towards the attainment of their social, economic and financial goals.
Presently, WEAVE in collaboration with Thai Tribal Craft (TTC), an agency which provides opportunities to improve the quality of life of tribal people in Northern Thailand, manages a Fair Trade Shop located in Mae Sot, Tak Province Thailand. This is a partnership aimed at providing a venue to market the handicrafts produced both by the refugee and hill-tribe women.
