By: Mitos Urgel, Executive Director
Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment’s (WEAVE) focus on women’s economic empowerment stems from the fact that accessing fair and safe income is an ever increasing concern for all women. Inability to access safe income heightens women’s vulnerabilities and protection issues, particularly the refugees and disadvantaged. So WEAVE’s direct and tangible contribution of creating and developing economic initiatives and opportunities through creating time-honored inspired ethnic handmade products allowed women artisans to not only have safe home-based employment, increased income power and met their immediate household needs but as well as increased their level of self-worth and confidence, to mention a few.
Photo: Ta Arthit
The launching of the Fair Trade Shop in Mae Hong Son on November 11, 2014 marks another milestone in the life of WEAVE. Its economic empowerment work is complex yet absolutely essential in addressing the economic disempowerment of disadvantaged women and their communities through Fair Trade.
The aunties, the women artisans behind WEAVE Fair Trade’s beautiful handmade crafts will be showcasing their beautiful work of hand. WEAVE Fair Trade official company logo will also be unveiled to signal its social business operations.
The event will highlight the importance of WEAVE’s economic empowerment work through the beautiful creations of handmade items by women artisans as part of its continuous efforts to build sustainable solutions and alternatives for these women, their families and communities to live life with dignity. In this event, WEAVE also hope to get further support particularly from the Thai authorities to recognize Fair Trade and small social enterprises of indigenous and disadvantaged communities in Northern Thailand.