Artisans Associations of Cambodia

Dear Friends of the Artisans Association of Cambodia,

We hope that this update finds you well.  At the Artisans Association of Cambodia, we are happy to be in touch with you to share a few updates, and to give you more detail about how AAC is making a difference in the lives of thousands of vulnerable people. We hope that this update makes for inspirational summer reading!

The Artisans Association of Cambodia (AAC), a Fair Trade Association which benefits and is vastly represented by women, was formed by WRF in 2001 to support the development of crafts as a viable way of economic improvement of disadvantaged and disabled Cambodians, especially for women who are disabled, victims of trafficking, HIV positive, or single heads of families. The project supports 45 social enterprises in Cambodia who pay wages to over 2,700 Cambodian artisans, 76% of whom are women. Over half of the AAC member social enterprises have women Directors.

While the AAC was initially established to support persons with disabilities, the scope of the association rapidly expanded and the AAC began integrating persons with disabilities with other vulnerable communities in Cambodia, including single women, female headed households and landmine survivors. Consequently, the AAC has grown from a four-member group in 2001 into a 45-member umbrella association today. International sales have grown from $25,000 per year to over $3.1 million in 2015. Consequently, the increase in sales has led to higher incomes and greater economic independence for the AAC artisans. Moreover, we have witnessed an increase in the capacity and confidence of the AAC member organizations in terms of managing these social enterprises and networking locally, regionally and internationally with other artisan organizations and buyers.

By bringing the member organizations together, the AAC has opened possibilities for lower prices on raw materials, training programs to improve production and design, new marketing possibilities though public relations and participation in trade fairs, as well as technical assistance (TA) that assist the AAC member organizations to restructure as social enterprises and better manage their operations. Some of the areas of TA are export licensing, pricing, product display, purchasing, accounting and inventory control. These areas are especially important in helping to empower women who are traditionally far less exposed to management, business and financial education than men in Cambodian society.

This summer we have also seen:

• More applications for AAC membership, with 45 active AAC members.
• Growth in sales of all members (we are tabulating exact figures for June 2015-July 2016 but we estimate over $3,000,000 in sales).
• AAC successfully consolidated shipments for buyers who placed orders from the members through AAC.
• Those buyers have been imported products such as silk scarves, silk placemats and coaters, silk jewelry, cardholder, cattle horn jewelry, recycled paper journal & plastic bag organic soap, wood product.

Lastly, please see the WRF website and check out the amazing AAC catalog (link below)!

Thank you for your continued support!  We look forward to sharing more about AAC’s activities in the coming quarter.  Until then, please know that we are most grateful for your generous support.

Warmest regards,

The WRF Team

Links:

• AAC Catalog