Neang

This is Neang, with her paternal granny and her cousin. I love the photo below of Neang and her grandmother. They have such character and are such strong women. I think Neang is very photogenic. She is the one who was working as a construction worker for 6000riels (about USD1.50) a day. I have written about her elsewhere because Neang is the one whose situation moved me most. She stayed in a hut made out of cement bag walls and had no electricity, water or a toilet. This is her new home in Chhbar Ampou, for which she pays USD22 a month. The entire room can be seen in this photograph and this is her home. You can see she has very few possessions. It looks dingy but believe me, it is steps up from where she was (you can see older photos of her former home on this blog). Here, in her concrete room, she is protected from the elements and she has a wooden bed frame to sleep on. She also has access to water and a common toilet and bathroom (shared toilets are common for poorer Khmers, often 6 or more people share a single toilet and bathroom) and importantly, she has electricity, which means she has the fan for the terrible April heat. She is another one who is always thanking me, and keeps telling me she loves her job as if she is worried all the time she may lose it. Neang's husband used to beat her, before he moved on to another woman, a friend of Neang's. She is 30 and lives with her grandmother. Neang has no children. Photo courtesy of Bloom customer Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com) Update on 23 May: I just learnt that Neang's granny, the beautiful old lady in this photo has died. She died sometime in April, around Khmer New Year, so soon after we met her. It was a big shock to me. She looked well, although I'm sure she was not. That is the way in Cambodia. On average women live below 60 years and Neang's granny was 60-something.

Sophea

Sophea is a fantastic worker and I really appreciate her hard work. She is very shy but when she opens up, she has a really nice laugh. I find Khmers like to laugh--they are not a sullen lot at all. She is always saying "aw-koon thom thom, bong srei" or "thank you big big, elder sister" (even though I am younger than Sophea--it's a form of respect). She is actually not well, and has a cyst which causes her much pain sometimes, yet she is always the first to help me with my bags when I arrive from Siem Reap. I have considered taking her to Vietnam to see a doctor but she says it is not necessary. Here she is in her house with her mother (left). On the walls of Khmer houses you will find pictures of singers and actresses and you can see some in Sophea's house. Also photos of her relatives, dead and alive. Sophea has had a very very tragic life, but to protect her privacy I won't go into details. She has one teenage daughter, still in school, who lives with her and her mom. Photo courtesy of Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com)

Edany and her daughter

Beautiful photo of Edany and her 8 year old daughter. Corey took such a great pic with the little boy from the neighbourhood running to the riverside. We were at the riverside across the bridge--I love this area, it is cool and breezy and not yet developed. No doubt it will be one day, as the villagers are sitting on prime land that is quickly being snapped up by developers who want to build all sorts of riverfront businesses. Dany's mother (pictured below) pays USD10 a month to rent a small plot of land on which to build her own wooden house (that's the wooden patio they are sitting on below). It is only USD7.50 to rent a plot of land at the riverbank because sometimes houses fall into the river. Dany tells me they are worried one day they will lose their homes as soil erosion means eventually the riverbank will move closer inland. Dany is divorced from her husband and also has a 19 year old daughter. Photo courtesy of Bloom customer Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com)

Sewing Silhouette

This is Sophea in silhouette. It looks like she is working in the dark, but take a look at the next pic! This one is a aerial view of Sophea and Kamhut at their sewing machines. Photos courtesy of Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com)

Outside and Inside the Bloom workshop

This one shows the outside of the workshop. It's in a little lane in the city, just off street 163. It's a nice little neighbourhood and neighbours often stop by to chat and their children play along this corridor. The women love children and are happy to be around them and their noisy games. Most of the Bloom team cycle to work and you can see their bicycles parked here. Edany's bike was stolen one day from right under their noses! Now they lock their bikes.
Inside the workshop. The typical Khmer flat "ptayh l'wairng" is a terrace house that is longish (usually 4m by 20m). "Wairng" in Khmer means "long". That's me and Sipha sitting on the floor trying to decide on how many pieces of the new designs we should make. Photos courtesy of Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com)

Quality control

Here you see our QC mean machine! Sareoun is a star--he's responsible and is always joking with the women. Because he knows he is better off than all of the women (his parents own a pig farm), he puts their needs in front of his. Sareoun is married with no children and previously worked at a Chinese garment factory and then at Hagar, the Swiss NGO, where they all trained to make bags. Photo courtesy of Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com)

Handmade Bags 2

This one shows Saroeun using a lighter to burn the edges of the nylon strap to stop them from fraying. It sounds very primitive, the tools we use. The bags are handmade so we do not use expensive equipment like you find in factories. With machinery, all the different parts are mass produced efficiently, whereas it's more time-consuming to do it the "traditional" way. Photo courtesy of Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com). Corey came by to buy our bags one day and spent the next day with the Bloom team. She is a brilliant photographer--go check out her site and you can see beautiful photos of China and Europe.

Handmade Bags

I really like this pic. It shows Sophea straightening the edges of the rice bag before sewing. Photo courtesy of Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com).

The Bloom team

One customer, Corey, from the US, took a series of photographs of Bloom. She aims to write a story on Bloom and get it published, to help raise awareness of our little project. We all had fun showing Corey our workshop and how we make the bags. Then we took her around Chhbar Ampou where the women live and Corey took some great pics of the women and their families. This one was taken outside the workshop. From left: Sareoun, Kamhut, Sipha, Neang, Sophea and Edany. I'm the one squatting in front! We are al carrying Bloom's handmade recycled fishfeed bags. Photo courtesy of Bloom customer Corey Torpie (www.coreytorpie.com).

Let a Hundred Handbags Bloom

This blog entry was written by my friend John Weeks, an artist and editor based in Phnom Penh. His entry is full of pictures of the Bloom shop in Siem Reap and was picked up by Cambodia News on www.cambodia.org (You can search under "news") -- which surprised both John and I! I thought Bloom was such a small outfit, it wouldn't get noticed, so that really made my day. PS: John has the distinction of having Cambodia's oldest running blog. Check out the entry on Bloom here.

http://jinja.apsara.org/index.php/2007/11/28/let-a-hundred-handbags-bloom/


Visiting Siem Reap gave me a chance to catch up with Diana Saw of Bloom, who’s recently relocated from Phnom Penh. There are plenty of craft shops jostling for position in Cambodia, but only one chronicles the ups and downs of its work on a regular basis.

These bags are made from really tough plastic used for transporting all kinds of goods. Instead of ending up in a landfill, they’re a durable and unique souvenirs.

You can find more traditional styles and patterns made of silk…

And other goodies as well.

It seems at times that the environment in Cambodia is geared for big business, not small players, so it’s nice to see someone giving it their all. Great to catch up and talk about blog stuff, business ideas and the changes in Siem Reap.

If you’re in Siem Reap, give it a look for yourself on ‘Pub Street’.