Welcome to week three of creative ways organizations are staying afloat in Cambodia in the midst of COVID. For previous weeks, check out Love Soap and Phnom Climb. This week I’d like to share how Cambodia Knits is using Patreon to keep their staff employed and busy.
I’ll be honest, knitting isn’t something I gravitate towards, but I respect it. Who am I to judge my friend who knits in church, when I show up with my coloring book! I first fell in love with Cambodia Knits, when they launched Bong (Khmer for “older brother” or “older sister”) the Water Buffalo, a few friends who knew my love of water buffalos sent me messages about it. (It was a repeat of when everyone started sending me those mermaid tail blankets via Facebook a few years ago). From there I started learning more about Cambodia Knits, how they train and employ women, who can work from home to make beautifully crafted knitted products. When I started this little blog series, one of my friends reached out and told me I should write about Cambodia Knits and connected me with Monika, the Founder and Chief Knitter. Below is a quick video from Monika on how to support Cambodia Knits during COVID19.
Cambodia Knits (CK) is a social enterprise working with marginalized communities in and near Phnom Penh. Their goal is to produce beautiful, high quality, and unique hand-made products while providing fair and flexible employment opportunities.
They believe women have the power to break the intergenerational cycles of poverty, contribute to their communities and change the world. Given economic opportunities, women invest their incomes into the health, education, and futures of their families. However, many women in Cambodia face constraints in finding and keeping paid employment. Cambodia Knits work within the constraints women face to provide fair, flexible employment and to support them to challenge those constraints. They focus on two things: producing fun, quirky handmade products, and providing fairly paid employment in Cambodia.
To date, Cambodia Knits has trained more than 200 individuals in basic and advanced knitting or crochet skills!
Once trained, all participants have the opportunity to produce Cambodia Knit products at piece rates. Knitters and crocheters are provided with all materials and receive a fair piece rate for what they produce. They regularly visit the communities to collect the products, pay producers, and provide support and additional training when necessary. Cambodia Knits believe that high-quality products can be made at home. This cuts out the need to travel the long distance into the city to find work and allows parents to stay home with their young children. It also means that people can work at their own pace and still earn a livable income.
Another thing I absolutely love about Cambodia Knits is how involved they are in the Phnom Penh Community and regularly partner with other organizations / individuals on projects. Recently they partnered with Free the Bears, a local NGO that works with wildlife rescue and did a book about a scared little mole, Mole was Afraid.
When COVID hit, Cambodia Knits, sprung into action. Schools in Cambodia have been closed since early March since most Knitters work at home, they are able to keep an eye on their children, which is a huge blessing in a country full of factory workers. They launched a knitting kit (see video below) to teach more people how to knit. They also launched a Patreon page. Patreon is like GoFundMe, but to help artists. Patreons are basically investing in art and art creators, which these women definitely are. Right now the goal is to get 99 Patreons to support the Cambodia Knits and keep everyone working. Since shipping isn’t currently happening in Cambodia at the moment, they are gearing up for Christmas orders and working to grow partnerships with for wholesale orders. They are also reaching out to schools and businesses, to sell Cambodia Knits products as a fundraiser, where those making the sales keep a percentage of the funds raised. I’m definitely going to place an order for Bong and some buddies for him. I hope you’ll consider being generous as well, in prayer, encouragement, and Patreon-age.
Interested in becoming a Patreon of Cambodia Knits? Check out their Patreon Page! Interested in learning more about how your school / organization can make money by selling Cambodia Knits products? Or interested in placing a whole sale order? Let me know and I can connect you to Monika, Cambodia Knits’ Founder and Chief Knitter.
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