29 August 2002

Luang Prabang, Lao PDR: After graduating from high school in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, Saysomone Bunsud had only very few opportunities open to her. For two years, she stayed at home, helping her parents work the family rice fields.

Now 21, Saysomone has discovered a new future as a textile designer and seamstress, through her apprenticeship with the Lao Youth Union's Textile Handicraft Workshop.

The bright, airy workshop in Luang Prabang is located at the key intersection of Lao's ancient capital and former seat of the royal family. Tourists visiting the UNESCO-designated World Heritage site located in the central highlands of Lao wander in - frequently asking for directions and information - and end up buying the carefully crafted items on sale. Wooden shelves display clothing, bags, and western-style household goods like placemats, napkins or tea cosies.

Saysomone sits at one of eight sewing machines in the center of the room, stitching a tricky section of a handbag. She is intent on her work, and looks up only to check her progress with her trainer, United Nations Volunteer Eriko Kawaguchi. Pressing the sewing machine's footpedal with her bare feet, Saysomone carefully works on a piece of indigo-dyed fabric. All of the products she sews are made of naturally-dyed Lao cotton.

To produce the soft but resilient fabric, cotton threads are made by removing seeds from the cotton fibres, which are then carded and spun. The threads are then dyed, dried, spun onto spools, and finally woven on handmade wooden looms.

Eriko Kawaguchi is adamant that all the materials in the workshop must be dyed naturally. "Smell this," she says, passing over a bolt of indigo-dyed cotton. "Cotton dyed with natural indigo has a rich characteristic scent and can easily be identified." When one of the dyers was ill and had a friend do the dying instead, the scent was missing - and the yarn was sent back.

The textile project began in September 2001, with the selection of two villages where natural dyeing methods are still practiced, and weaving skills are strong. Dyers in Hat Kho and Nanyang Thai received supplemental training on natural dyeing techniques from the Lao Women's Union, but what was missing was information about how to use these skills to access markets and increase income. This is where Kawaguchi's skills came into play.

An award-winning textile designer, UN Volunteer Kawaguchi recognized that what was needed was organization and training. She established two producer groups of weavers in each village, each made up of five young weavers and one senior dyer. Older, skilled craftswomen who received training were encouraged to then train younger community members.

Now, once material is produced by the weavers, it is ready for the apprentice designers to transform into marketable goods. Saysomone is one of four young women who have industriously studied, designed, and sewed their way through six-month apprenticeships. In addition to sewing skills, she now has the ability to create new and inventive designs, and the knowledge of what will appeal to tourists.

Ecotourism advisor to the Luang Prabang Provincial Tourism Department and UN Volunteer Ronny Dobbelsteijn says, "Most tourists are eager to buy things when they know where the products come from." Environmentally-friendly souvenirs are popular with tourists, and the workshop works so that money goes directly to the villagers without middlemen taking a cut of the profits.

In Saysomone's case, not only has she been able to successfully produce and sell innovative goods, but she has also been able to take advantage of a revolving funds structure set up by the project. Some of the apprentices accepted work to take home and complete, but Saysomone did not have a sewing machine. However, because she was so eager and hard working, she was given a loan from the project funds. Her sewing machine cost over $40 US. While monthly loan re-payments were set at $15 US per month, Saysomone was able to produce and sell enough goods to pay back the loan at $20 US per month - quite a feat when in the past she had no personal income.

Like most Lao women, Saysomone wears a traditional "seen", or ankle-length sarong-style skirt. Today, the colourful, geometrically patterned skirt is paired with a western shirt. When asked to choose her favourite item that she has sewn, she selects one that shows an equivalent balance between tradition and modernity. The handbag that she holds proudly is made of cotton delicately coloured with tints from Lao plants, root vegetables, coconut bark, and turmeric. The handle is round and wicker, and the bag would look just right on the arm of an urban professional woman anywhere in the world.

Saysomone is now part of a network of craftswomen that will be able to profit from keeping traditional expertise alive - with the knowledge of what international consumers want, and the ability to adapt her creative skills. As she pauses and looks out the window of the textile workshop, Saysomone sees a bright future ahead.