Check out our Mother’s Day Sale going on now at www.cambodianthreads.com!!

Use discount code “Mom” to save 20% of any order!

Cambodian Threads is moving in a really positive direction.  We are excited to present our spring line up which will feature our three new products: hand-made neckties, bags and wallets. The quality of the neckties is truly impressive.  They are made from the same weave as our scarves and then stitched thoroughly to maintain a classic press.  I have been wearing one here in Haiphong, Vietnam at the Maritime University where I am currently serving as a Fulbright Scholar, and I have received nothing but compliments about how dapper the tie looks.  We will feature a few different colors including silver, black, turquoise blue, olive green, and red.  They are truly wonderful ties and Cambodian Threads is enthused to offer such quality hand-made silk items.  The multi purpose make up bag is a simple yet elegant piece that can also be used as a pencil case.  I use mine to carry various things when I’m on the move such as a phone charger, compass, pocket knife, or flash drives. The wallets make great gifts.

We were able to make a big donation in February for an English studies program 

sponsored by my dear monk friend, Venerable Kao Sopheap, who has accepted our Cambodian Education Directing position.  That program is up and running and the 50 or so students are benefiting from weekend English courses! 

I’m eager to get back over to Cambodia at the beginning of June.  My Fulbright Scholarship is currently wrapping up with various end of the year conferences; living in Vietnam has taught me much about regional issues and has enabled a broader comparative perspective.   

Finally, in June Cambodian Threads has an intern coming over from Connecticut College who is going to help manage our new English learning program in the Prek Bongkong community (the same community our silk art is produced).  Our Managing English Volunteer Coordinator, John, will be working closely with myself, Venerable Kao Sopheap, and Naysim Heng to coordinate this new program and impact the education development initiatives in other Cambodian communities.  We’ll have more information about John and his assistance soon.  This summer will be a big one for Cambodian Threads and our education projects.  We are looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate in support of our mission! 

We are very proud of CT’s co-founder Jacob Daniels, who was recently awarded the Fulbright Scholarship!  He will be spending the next year in Vietnam, teaching English and traveling back and forth to Cambodia, where he will continue to head our philanthropic efforts over there.  

http://aspen.conncoll.edu/news/6277.cfm

Daniels, who majored in government at Connecticut College, has been traveling and living abroad since his graduation.

“I went to Korea to teach in the winter of 2008 and 2009, and then to Cambodia where I taught at the Pannasastra University of Cambodia and studied Buddhist philosophy,” Daniels said. “I’m currently traveling in India.”

While in Cambodia, Daniels founded Cambodian Threads, a socially responsible company that sells fairly traded silk scarves made by a family of artisans from a small Cambodian village. A portion of the proceeds from every scarf is used to buy education necessities, including pencils, notebooks, calculators and rulers, which are donated to disadvantaged schools in the same region.

“The Fulbright Fellowship will be a great opportunity for me to continue living abroad and expanding my international and cultural knowledge,” Daniels said.

I’m certainly not a professional video editor, but I do have some experience making amateur videos, so when Jake told me that he wanted to shoot a mini documentary about Cambodian Threads, I offered my services to the company.  As a small startup with no outside funding, we’re always looking to pinch pennies wherever possible.  So it made sense for me to give it a go editing this footage myself, instead of hiring outside help. 

Though it’s just a simple three minute video, it was quite the undertaking to complete.  Swapping high quality HD video footage back and forth from Southeast Asia to Boston was more difficult than I think any of us imagined it would be, and various technical problems pushed the project back much longer than we had originally hoped for.  But, if I may so myself, I’m pretty proud of the final product.  Better late than never, as they say. 

It was a lot of fun to finally see the footage that Jake and Barrie had worked so hard on many months ago.  I truly think they got some great shots, and it made the editing process a lot of fun.  Every time I actually see the smiles on the children’s faces in Prek BongKong, it reinvigorates me, and reminds why I’ve enjoyed working with Cambodian Threads so much over the past year and a half. 

I tried to keep the video as short and to the point as possible, explaining what our company does in a clear and concise manner.  I hope we achieved that, to some degree at least. 

The first half was shot at the Heng’s house in Prek BongKong, where all of our fair trade products are crafted.  I think the footage does a good job portraying the peace and tranquility of the Heng’s house/weaving studio.  We’ve been lucky enough to experience the warmth of their hospitality several times in person, and if just a little of that feeling comes across in this video, I think we’ve done a good job. 

The second part was shot during one of our many school supply donations at Preah Takov Primary School in Prek BongKong, Cambodia.  Again, if this video manages to translate even a little bit of the positive energy that we’ve felt in person while working with these kids, I think we’ve achieved our goal. 

I hope you enjoy it, let us know what you think!

Steve and Cambodian Threads

www.cambodianthreads.com

Cambodian Threads is happy to announce the establishment of a scholarship fund!  We were approached by a great friend, Venerable Kou Sopheap, to help support an English studies project he started a year ago in his home village of Cheang Wat. 

Venerable Kou Sopheap, a Khmer monk who has reached the highest level of intellectual prowess through studying at the Troy University of Alabama and  Pannassasstra University of Cambodia (where he currently is completing his Masters of Education and is teaching Buddhism), is a brilliant and gracious person.  Jacob Daniels, Co-founder of CT, taught English to Sopheap from August to December 2009 before Sopheap went to America on an exchange scholarship.  About this experience Jacob said, “It was immediately clear after meeting Sopheap that he was a special man.  His critical thinking was obvious, but beyond was a sincere altruism that reflected in every conversation and action.  Venerable Sopheap is the future for Cambodia.”

Venerable Sopheap started the project last year for students in his village to study English on the weekends, and it has been successful thus far.  His project aims to help two groups of students: young learners of about 6 years old and teenage students of about 13 years old.  In total the group equals about 50 students.  This program is about to expire in April and needs support to continue for another year.  Therefore, when Sopheap informed us about his project and asked for a $250 contribution, we were eager to help. 

About 150 kilometers North East of Phnom Penh, his rural farming village of Cheang Wat (in Kong Chey Commune, Oring Ov District, Kampong Cham Province) is a very disadvantaged village with minimal access to resources.  His project is great because it aspires to give students necessary English skills , which are highly desirable to employers in more urban settings like Phnom Penh (where many of the participating students want to work to make more money and sustain their family).  Sopheap understands the importance of English as a communication medium and is working to help his fellow villagers empower themselves through knowledge like he has done for himself.

Cambodian Threads is happy to form a partnership with Venerable Sopheap and his education efforts.  We hope this collaboration will blossom in the future and empower the Khmer students studying in Cheang Wat Village.  We will keep you updated on how the program is progressing!

Help support this initiative and others like it buy purchasing a beautiful, handmade, fair trade scarf now at http://www.cambodianthreads.com!

Cambodian Threads is pushing forward after a great holiday season. We are making big moves on our education projects and our product line!   Recently, we coordinated a meeting with the Heng family to pick up another batch of beautiful hand made silk products and discuss future goals. 

New Products for Spring 2011! 

Prek Bongkong Village in Cambodia is a very unique place.  Its proximity to Phnom Penh makes it accessible, yet when we cross that mighty Mekong River and the ferry lands on the dusty dock it is clear that we have arrived at a rural, farm-based sanctuary.  That feeling only grows when trotting through the bumpy paths, swallowed by old growth palms and banana trees.  It’s the kind of escape that East-coast urbanites like me dream of.

Recently, the Hengs and their growing network of silk weaving family members have been practicing their art diligently to refine their products.  And they surely are succeeding! Cambodian Threads is excited to introduce new products for our spring 2011 collection.  Keep an eye out for more long silk scarves like the ones we have been providing, but also new fashions like beautiful, shorter square scarves, raw silk scarves, silk bags, and silk ties.  We have been working with the Hengs for months to develop this new spring line and are thrilled to present it!

Education Initiatives

Our scholarship search is also moving forward.  We have created a survey to evaluate eligible candidates from the Prek Bongkong community.  This scholarship will seek to find two graduating high school students to study at a University in Phnom Penh.  The key factor to this equation is their high school final exam scores which will be published this summer.  We hope to find the right students by evaluating both our surveys and their examination scores.  It looks promising for the students to begin this autumn.  More information to come…

Another education initiative that we at Cambodian Threads envision is a volunteer English teaching program in Prek Bongkong.  The idea is to have native English speaking teachers from Phnom Penh come out and help a group of students on the island to learn English.  We have some connections through Language Corps, Pannassasstra University of Cambodia, and other English teaching forums to seek quality teachers that would be interested in volunteering.   It would likely be held on the weekends starting this June.  We are coordinating with the director of Prea Takov Secondary School to use their classrooms, but Naysim Heng also suggested her home as a venue option.  This program would be a great way to help the students in the community become more confident in their English communication and to encourage future opportunities. 

We here at Cambodian Threads are working hard to improve education in Cambodia and to develop the finest quality silk products.  We greatly appreciate your support and thank you for your holiday contributions!  See you further down the road…

It has been a very successful week for Cambodian Threads!  We were able to connect with the Heng family out in Prek Bongkong village, Cambodia. The autumn weather made for a dry and warm  afternoon as we motor biked out to the ferry.  World globes, meter rulers, notebooks and pens were strapped onto the Honda dream as we bumped up and down the dusty road.  We have been wanting to progress from our initial donations to those that have more long term higher educational implications, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Having a world globe changes perspective about Earth and we were excited to bring the globes out to the Khmer students. 

The Heng family was waiting to greet us with fresh fruit and smiles.  Naysim and Naycheng, the elder sisters, spoke about new developments in their lives while Mama and Money prepared a grilled chicken lunch.  We talked about future goals, a main one, as always, being that of better education for the community. 

Cambodian Threads Scholarship Search!  

We have meditated about how to truly help the Prek Bongkong community for a long time.  We believe that we can implement a formula for significant educational progress.  First, we will find two intelligent and motivated students from the village high school.  These students will be given a scholarship to study at a university in Phnom Penh (probably Pannasastra University of Cambodia because of previous working ties and because it is a premier university).  One student will study English and the other information technology.  While they are studying, they also have an obligation to come back to the village to teach the younger students the skills they are learning.  We will find an educational facility which can host village students.   By that time, we hope to provide better technology to the students, such as computers.  The long term goal is that after the scholarship students graduate, they will continue to teach and help the community.  This is Cambodian Threads progression.  The Hengs were very happy to hear about this strategy and are currently working with the school administration to seek desired candidates to start studying next year.

After lunch we sorted through the new beautiful hand-made silk scarves that they had been working on since August.  The quality is always impressive.  The skill required to make each scarf is amazing.  We collected the fresh batch and packaged them up.  Look out for these pieces of silk art! 

Cambodian Threads then went on to explain a new construction style that we are hoping to feature this spring/ summer: square scarves. Naycheng was scribbling down the instructions while we explained the new construction.  She said they can manage the new design and she was happy to try.  We are excited to see how they turn out!

Another big success Cambodian Threads had last week is that we were able to connect with our Spanish videographer who helped shoot a documentary earlier this year.  We had some technological woes when our mini-tape got magnetically washed while being shipped back stateside, but now we have the footage digitalized and will get a reel out soon!

Cambodian Threads wishes the very best to everyone during the holiday season!  Come check out our beautiful silk scarves at www.cambodianthreads.com .  They are truly the perfect gift for the holiday season!  We greatly appreciate your support! 

is gearing up for a big donation this month.  I just got off the phone with Naysim and Naycheng.  They are excited to hear that we will be going to their Prek Bongkong village at the end of November. 

The Heng family has been working hard to produce their exquisite silk art and since August, they have produced nearly 200 beautiful scarves!  It is always great to talk with the Heng family, they are so hospitable.  Our conversations usually start off with some broken Khmer and English and almost always the question, “Have you eaten already?” is asked before logistics are discussed.  “Yes Naysim, I have eaten already, I ate rice, and you?”  And almost always she answers: “Yes, rice, already.”  Rice in Cambodia basically means any kind of food. 

We went on to talk about new construction patterns and donation strategies.  This will be our 6^th donation since we started our project. It’s exciting to think that we have targeted over 1000 students in village of Prek Bongkong.  Now, we are aiming to donate in different ways.  We want to get scholarships for students to study in more progressive schools in the city, train them to become great teachers and get them back to their community to assist in education.  This is sound in theory and hopefully with the right research and execution, it can be a future reality. 

We are also looking to team up with Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School and Mr. Bill Schecter (former history/ life teacher) in the effort they have invested in helping a community outside of Battambong, Cambodia.  Keep an eye out for their project and how our collaboration is solidifying.  It is exiting times for Cambodian Threads!!!

CHECK OUT OUR HOLIDAY SCARF SALE, GOING ON NOW AT WWW.CAMBODIANTHREADS.COM!