Soul Economy

Soul Economy recently had the pleasure of speaking to Belinda from Carpets for Communities. This soulful business sells rugs made by a community of women on the Thai and Cambodia border. The rugs are made from t-shirt and hessian bag off-cuts. Carpets for Communities provides all of the materials, training and support to the women/mothers in the community with all profits made from the rugs sold in Australia going directly back to the community. Read on to learn more about this great organisation.

1. Tell us a little about Carpets for Communities
Carpets for Communities (CfC) is a grass roots organisation aimed at providing immediate intervention to at risk children by empowering the mother to lift her family out of poverty by earning an income. Often children are taken out of school and put on the street to earn an income for the family. CfC aims to break the poverty cycle by helping the mother become financially independent by teaching her the trade of carpet hooking. All materials, training and support are provided to the mother, and the carpets they produce are brought into Australia and sold in local markets. All profits go directly back to the mother in the form of income and savings for the future.

2. What was the inspiration behind starting the company?
David bacon, the founder, went to Thailand for a holiday years ago, and did a day trip into Cambodia. He was shocked by the number of children working on the street at the Thai/Cambodia border, and particularly by the level of poverty in the Cambodian border community of Poi Pet. He made friends with a few of the children on the street, and eventually asked to be taken back to their parents where he assessed their situation and what he could do to help. He eventually came up with the above idea, and started making wool and silk rugs. The product has gone through many re-designs and trials, to arrive at the current product the women produce – the cotton t-shirt rugs.

3. Tell us about the product range. Which are the most popular products?
All rugs are made from off-cuts of material from the t-shirt factories in Cambodia (either purchased or donated) and used hessian bags. There are many sizes of rugs available. The standard ones are:

• 40cm x 50cm – $35 (small bathroom mat)
• 45cm x 65cm – $45 (medium bathroom mat)
• 70cm in diameter round – $55
• 1m x 70cm – $85 (small lounge room rug or bedroom rug)
• 2m x 70cm – $140 (hall runner)
• 1.2m x 1.6m – $229 (lounge room rug)

The most popular sizes at the markets are the $45 ones, followed by the $35 ones and the round ones for $55. We get a lot of enquiries for lounge room rugs, however generally don’t have any in stock and take specific orders. I have placed an order for 9 lounge room rugs primarily in browns and creams to arrive in November as I want to try to sell these at markets.

There are uncountable colour combinations available. I would say there are approximately 50 base colours we use, with a few more shades of each colour available also. Each shipment has a wide variety of colours available, with the most popular being blues, greens, browns, yellows and reds.

4. Where can we buy your gorgeous rugs – online, markets, retail stores?
In Sydney, rugs are currently for sale at:

• Paddington Markets on Oxford Street every Saturday
• Bondi Markets in Bondi Primary School every Sunday
• Narrabeen Markets on the Northern Beaches every 3rd Sunday of the month

They are also sold at the Rundle street markets in Adelaide every Saturday, as well as at a few retail outlets in Melbourne and Adelaide. Please see the website for further details (http://www.carpetsforcommunities.org/where-to-buy).

We are currently working on getting the rugs onto eBay also, which should be up and running by the end of July 2009. Shipping will be available Australia wide, at around $15 per rug.

5.What have been the greatest challenges in setting up Carpets for Communities?
Getting it off the ground and making it sustainable. There were numerous times then the founder hit road blocks in the form of lack of funding, lack of materials, regulations preventing exportation of the carpets, and in-country corruption and the demand of bribes etc. The founder went into debt to pay for the carpets up front from the women, then paid thousands of dollars to ship the carpets into Australia, then had to wait months to get the money back from market sales. Because of the lack of funding, only small quantities of carpets could be bought at a time, meaning that the shipping cost per carpet was higher, and the cost of the carpet became higher, meaning less sales. Eventually he gained funding and won a few awards and grants, so larger amounts of carpets could be purchased and shipped at a time (approx. 700), which brought down the price of the carpets.

6. What have been the greatest successes?
There are 20 women currently in the program, and they have around 63 children between them. Each of these school aged kids are back in school and have the prospect of a brighter future. There have been 63 women move through the program however. Some of these have left because they have earned enough money to buy a piece of land, or start their own business.

7. Can you tell us a little about the communities that you work with in Cambodia? Do you have some good news stories to share about positive developments in these communities since you have been working with them?
The only community we work in Cambodia is called Poi Pet which is right on the border with Thailand, and is a high traffic area for tourists moving between countries. The poverty level in this community is far worse than many of the other large cities in Cambodia, and the education level is much lower. Many of the men work in factories or in manual labour positions with little regard to OH&S, and often injure themselves and are unable to continue to work. Women are often left widowed by AIDS or natural diseases, and often grandmothers inherit their grandchildren with their children die of AIDS. Because of Cambodia’s brutal past and the lasting effects of the Khmer regime, there are little education facilities available and the majority of locals rely on farming to feed their families. Because of these factors and many more that are inherent in developing countries, the cycle of poverty is never ending. Mothers need to feed their families – but when the father is unable to help or no longer around, it is up to the children to help. They are taken out of school and sent to the streets to work – often holding umbrella’s for tourists for 3c a day, or begging on the street. They receive no education, and grow up to be unskilled and unable to earn an income for their family. So the cycle continues.

However, there are multiple good news stories. Besides the 63 women that have benefited from this program, the greater Poi Pet community benefits also. The women earn more money and are able to make repairs to their houses, buy school supplies for their children, buy clothes, and food.. therefore supporting the local community also.

8. What advice would you give others keen to start their own responsible businesses?

• Start small and be realistic. Making a difference to even one family is still a fantastic achievement. If that works, bring on a second family. It will grow naturally.
• If you are passionate about what you are doing, tell people about it at every opportunity you get! You will be surprised by how willing people are to help, and how your passion and excitement will inspire them. You never know the connections people have and what chance phone calls/meetings/discussions can bring.
• Work on what the core aim of your organisation is and plant that as your mission. Always keep in mind the big picture and what you want to work towards, then break that down into more achievable smaller goals. If that small goal is aligned with your core, then it will be successful in building the organisation.

Now we here at Soul Economy like to get to know our soulful entrepreneurs a little better, so on a more personal note we have 5 questions:

1. What are you passionate about?
Travel. I spent a year in London and backpacking Europe when I was 19 and did 3 months of aid work in Kenya at 21. My entire life is planned around holidays! But I don’t want to just do a Contiki tour and see the sights – I want to get off the beaten track, explore areas where most people don’t go, and really connect with the locals and see how they live and their view on the world. Third world countries that are entrenched in culture and history interest me most.

2. What was the last movie you saw and really enjoyed?
‘The Hangover’. Loved it! Laughter is so important, and I didn’t stop laughing for the entire time in this movie!

3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I really don’t know! I absolutely love Manly where I live now, and I think that will always be home. However, I would love to do 6 months living in lots of different places. Cambodia, Brazil, Switzerland, Kenya, Russia, Thailand, Chile, Spain, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Egypt, India…everywhere! I plan on moving to Cambodia in 2013 to work with CfC for a year, so that’s a good start.

4. What do you do to relax?
Read a book, go for a walk, go to the beach with friends, listen to music.

5. What one change would you like to see in the world in your lifetime?
The end of female subjugation in many developing countries.

Carpets for Communities
M: +61 (0) 403 425 649 (Belinda)/ +61 (0) 424 511 155 (David)
E: davidbacon@carpetsforcommunities.org
W: www.carpetsforcommunities.org

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