Mekong Plus

Mekong Plus is a non-profit, community development organization, providing sustainable employment for women in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. Together with the sister enterprise Mekong Creations and Mekong Quilts, they sell products handmade by women in rural areas of Cambodia and Vietnam. At the moment the project is employing about 500 women, providing them with work close to their homes and families. All profits go to social development in the provinces of Vietnam and Cambodia and are being distributed by Mekong Plus. The profit is returned to the villages both directly in the form of salaries, and indirectly in funding for community development projects. Examples of development projects are providing lavatories in remote areas to better hygiene, or the pig, - and chicken-raising programs educating poor farmers on how to increase their profit. The goal is community development.

History

Mekong Plus (previously called Vietnam Plus) was founded in 1994 in Vietnam by a group of Vietnamese and Belgian people. One of the members is a quilter and came up with the idea of teaching Vietnamese women how to quilt. This way work, and eventually salaries were possible to provide. Today one can find the result from this idea in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh-City, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap where the quilts are being sold.

Mekong Quilts

In 2007 the organization expanded to Cambodia and changed name from Vietnam Plus to Mekong Plus. The newly established Mekong Quilts opened up shops in the capital of Cambodia; Phnom Penh and in the city of great temples further north; Siem Reap. The production in Cambodia takes place in the Svai Rieng province in the small village called Romdoul. The goal is to make the shops in Cambodia self-sufficient with products from Romdoul, but for now production is too small. The most complicated designs are also for now only made in Vietnam because of the long experience and great skill it requires from the women to make these quilts with an acceptable quality. A long-term goal is to make Cambodia self-sufficient with products so import from Vietnam is no longer necessary.

Mekong Creations

Mekong Creations is Mekong Quilts's younger sister company. The chain of shops also sells products that are made by women in Cambodia and Vietnam, and the profit goes to the same charity. Mekong Creations do not sell quilts, but a different range of various products made from bamboo, papier maché, water hyacinth and wood. Today Mekong Creations has shops and outlets in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh-City and Hà-Nôi.

The Quilters

An important aspect of and goal for Mekong Plus is to generate employment for women. The women are separated in to various groups making different products. Mekong Plus has no factory, the women stay close to their homes and usually work in a house in the local community. The women's groups usually contain something between 10-30 women. One quilt usually takes about three weeks to finish, and the women are paid for each product they make that passes the quality control.

A production team in Ho Chi Minh City works closely with the women to provide training. They are also providing support for the program, such as purchasing fabric and creating new designs. Quilting is a complicated and difficult trade, and the most complicated quilts take several years of training to be able to do.

Principles and Ethics

Mekong Plus operated after three main principles, all listed on its website:

• The first principle is to aim the absolute poorest, some of them having less than 2 dollars to live on every week (or an income of around 80 euro/year).

• The second is to involve everyone in the community; participation for all. Mekong Plus believes that development works best if all parts are involved and actively working towards a goal. This includes deciding what actions to be carried out and what methods to use.

• The last key principle is for the programs to be at the lowest cost possible and to be sustainable^[1]. The goal is to make a lot out of little. The programs were more expensive before, but because of help from experts the programs today are more effective. It is also important that the effort has a lasting impact not dependent on outside contribution later on.

The Programs

Today Mekong Plus operates in about 500 villages, of them 40 in Cambodia. The direct benefiters are an estimated 170 000 people. This includes school children, very poor families, micro credit, quilting women and so on. Mekong Plus has many different programs, among others the tooth brushing program for school children and micro credit. Mekong Plus is also working on a farming program. Usually a relatively better off “model family” is selected to test out the project first. In Cambodia water pumps are often partly provided (Mekong Plus will cover 2/3 of the expenses) when the lack of water is a big problem in the countryside. Techniques like digging dikes and let the water flow by itself instead of carrying the water by hand is also taught. If a pilot project like this is successful they hold a seminar where people from the community around are invited to see and learn. Based on the seminar the attending families can decide if this is something they would like to try as well.

Another program carried out in the Svai Rieng province in Cambodia is the latrine program. Bad hygienic conditions are big problems in many areas in Cambodia. Building hygienic latrines is one of the things Mekong Plus is working on. The families contribute a bit themselves, by paying for the materials for the toilet building.

See also

• Vietnam Plus

References

1. ^ Donorinfo Directory

External links

• Mekong Plus Page
• Mekong Creations Page
• Quilts Page