Soieries du Mekong:
generating income and saving
Soieries du Mekong is a social enterprise created by Enfants du Mekong and Espoir en Soie in 2002. Its mission is to revive the Khmer silk weaving tradition while supporting the economic development of Banteay Chmar village, through fair trade, environment protection and long term training and development.
A long term partnership
Soieries du Mekong and a+b=3 partnership dates back from 2006 when Sophie first visited Banteay Chmar and training needs (managing expenses and debt, saving) and challenges (no banks, low literacy level, high wedding expenses, informal loans, time notion...) were assessed. A first training taught directly by a+b=3 as a pilot, took place in March 2007 and reached 50 silk-weavers split in 5 groups and two levels according to their reading and maths skills. Topics such as controllig expenses, saving and getting out of debt were introduced through participatory games.
Second training: Managing expenses
In January 2008, two trainers trained in one of our "Training the Training" workshops adapted the material and facilitated a second session. Topics such as the different kind of expenses, necessary and unnecessary expenses, how to cut unnecessary expenses and save, were discussed and reviewed through interactive games.
Managing expenses was introduced with a story, pictures and toy banknotes. A similar story was used in the first training, but this time, the story was adapted: "Aya" (the name in the standard Money Basics curriculum) became Pisei and the income was changed to the sale of kramas and vegetables and the expenses included mobile phone cards, crème (very popular amongst the young women in the Cambodian countryside) and shirt. The story is played with toy banknotes to make it easier to count. Even though all the participants understood what to do, it took time to all groups to find out what Pisei had done with her money and why she felt lost. Some participants had even forgotten the money they had put in the pocket…
Weavers were also given a "incomes and expenses" sheet to fill in regularly to understand how much money they make on making and selling kramas and find out how much they can spend. However writing is a real challenge. This second session also showed the importance to review and review important topics through examples and practice, and link the training content to real life follow up (here the incomes and expenses sheet) to have a real impact.
first training in January 2008 (Money Basics "Where does my money go?")
Third training: saving
A third session was organised in September 2008 which specifically focused on saving (why save, the pros of saving, how to save...) and introducing the new saving scheme for the silk weavers and Soieries du Mekong staff. The training was facilitated by Soieries du Mekong staff and some activities were discussed with a+b=3 beforehand. Once again regular reviews prove necessary.
saving scheme and third training