Mai Handicrafts
Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts – Vietnam
Mai Vietnamese Handcrafts was set up by a small group of social workers to help poor and neglected children who could not afford to go to school in Ho Chi Minh City. Mai Vietnamese Handcrafts provided work and encouraged these children to attend informal classes. Nowadays school is free to all Vietnamese children, so Mai Vietnamese Handcrafts provides work for the mothers and older sisters of these children, boosting the family’s income and well being.
Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts has now become an income generating and educational project for poor and disadvantaged women. Mai provides employment and training as well as the promotion of self-reliance amongst disadvantaged families and ethnic minorities in Southern Vietnam. It has established itself as the primary marketing agent for neglected women in the rural area by active product development and by selling Vietnamese handicraft products to export and local markets.
Today Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts provides assistance to approximately 150 artisans, 95% of whom are women. The artisans are paid well – about twice the Vietnamese average income – and receive training in quality control, marketing and export procedures. The organisation’s profits fund various social work activities for its artisans.
Today Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts provides assistance to approximately 150 artisans, 95% of whom are women. The artisans are paid well – about twice the Vietnamese average income – and receive training in quality control, marketing and export procedures. The organisation’s profits fund various social work activities for its artisans.
Nguyen Tri Dang, a retired art teacher, is 72 years old. Mr. Dang and his family mould clay Christmas decorations for Mai 
Handicrafts. His work allows him to support his extended family and teach his grandsons handicraft skills, which will allow them to support themselves in the future.
Sources: http://www.maihandicrafts.com/web/
