Restoring the bamboo and rattan weaving profession
In 2007, when a program to improve women's autonomy was implemented in Trung Chinh commune (Thanh Hoa), Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham and many local women enthusiastically participated, hoping to restore the bamboo and rattan weaving profession to create livelihoods. However, economic efficiency was not as expected. In the first month, she only received 72,000 VND, not enough for gas to deliver the goods.
Realizing that traditional crafts cannot last, local leaders flexibly changed direction, organizing people to go to Ninh Binh province to learn sedge weaving. Ms. Tham not only attends classes but also invites good workers to the village to teach them a trade and find a place to live for them. Each product is committed to purchase. However, the output is still unstable.
"I proactively make products, but selling depends on others. Goods are stagnant, but the wages paid to the people are still enough. There are times when people in the cooperative have to take a whole month off because they have no job" - Ms. Tham shared.
Pitying the workers, Ms. Tham continued to find a new direction, then decided to return to the weaving profession. In 2010, she and a number of women established Tan Tho Cooperative, proactively producing and marketing leftover baskets - the main product - instead of depending on intermediary orders.
Ms. Tham brings the product to fairs inside and outside the province, introduces it directly, is devoted to customers and is ready to commit to recalling it if it cannot be sold. Some days the revenue is up to 30 million VND. The cooperative constantly innovates its designs, receives custom orders according to business requirements, and brings products across the country.
The "Tan Tho basket" brand has gradually affirmed its position, with the time when it sells tens of thousands of products per month, opening up sustainable job opportunities for hundreds of local workers.
The mainstay of many single and disabled female workers
Not only impressing with sharp handicraft products, Tan Tho handicraft Cooperative (Trung Chinh commune, Thanh Hoa province) is also special because it is the people who make it. Nearly 80% of workers here are elderly people, single women or people with disabilities.
They seek the Cooperative as if finding a support, where the less fortunate are connected, together building a community based on family love, perseverance and the desire to rise up in difficulty. Here, all costs of vocational training and technical training are covered by the Cooperative. No one is left behind due to lack of conditions to start.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham - Cooperative Director - shared: "Many workers consider the Cooperative as a second home, where disadvantaged workers find a place, work, be recognized and have stable income from their own hands".
As one of the most special cases of labor in the cooperative, Ms. Ma Thi Thom (born in 1971) shared that she is a single woman with congenital leg disabilities. However, she is still the only support for the whole family, including her elderly mother, orphaned nephew and son who is studying at university in Hanoi. Without complaining about her own fate, she opened a small grocery store at the beginning of the village to earn some money. In her free time, she works for hire, and at night she quietly sells bamboo and rattan products to earn extra income.
"Since working as a bamboo and rattan weaver at a cooperative, I have earned an additional 4 to 5 million VND per month. For others, it may be small, but for me it is a large asset, partly to cover and take care of my family. Thank you to the cooperative, thank you Ms. Tham for bringing me a job and earning more income not only for me but for many others" - Ms. Thom shared.
From a small production facility with a few dozen workers, Tan Tho Cooperative has now become one of the prestigious brands in the field of handicrafts. Currently, the Cooperative creates stable jobs for more than 500 local workers, with income ranging from a few million to 7 million VND per month.
