COLOR SILK
Color Silk is a social business that endeavors to prevent the ancient Cambodian tradition of silk weaving from vanishing, and to empower women in the more isolated areas of Cambodia to contribute to the economic development of their communities. Color Silk helps women in these communities to establish home-based enterprises that enables the women to work and live together close to their families, while at the same time be able to generate income and be economically independent. 

Explore their products at colorsilkcommunity.wixsite.com/colorsilk-cambodia. 

The Story

 PictureOne of Color Silk's weavers
Color Silk is a social business founded in 2009 in the aftermaths of a financial crisis that affected the price of traditional Cambodian silk products. Women were forced to flee to the neighboring countries of Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to find a job, in turn causing them to be separated from their families and become vulnerable to dangerous situations such as human trafficking or hard work conditions. With the goal of providing Cambodian women a secure, safe and permanent job that still allows them to be with their families, Color Silk was established to help empower women through granting them financial autonomy.
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Color Silk selects women to become members of their Community based on the following criteria:
  • they live in a rural area and have a low-income and/or a poor family
  • they are willing to do weaving jobs with orders from customers or have some weaving skills already
  • they accept the terms of the membership and agree not to work for other dealers
For those women that do not have prior weaving skills, Color Silk provides training that allows them to start weaving basic products within 6 weeks. Once accepted as a member, Color Silk goes on to provide both financial and technical support to their members through providing them with loans to set up the looms, raw materials; and imparting them with basic design knowledge. Color Silk also seek to ensure an all-year round market that provides financial sustainability for their members.

The Impact
To date, Color Silk has 450 weavers as members of its community, and covers 6 villages in the South-western province of Takeo. Members generate an average income of $65 per month, which is a 30% increase from their income before they joined the Color Silk Community. Color Silk supplies more than 50 boutiques in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, and provides 3 unique products of silk fabric, silk sarong and silk scarves to its customers.

Color Silk has grown from strength to strength since 2009, and has won many competitions and received many awards since. In 2011, Color Silk was awarded a grant from Starbucks’ Share Planet Grant; and was selected to the final Presentation Round of the Global Social Venture Competition-South East Asia in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2013, Color Silk was elected to join the 5th Global Forum in South Africa from Mekong Women Entrepreneur Challenge contest organised by the InfoDev and World Bank