LAO – Opportunity for Women

Lao ethnicity

Dien Bien Phu

The cooperative: Transparent and environmentally friendly

Who are

the weavers?

Thanks to the recent developments initiated by OFW, the Cooperative has just expanded from 9 to 22 women. The women produce cotton, spin it, dye it and then weave it. The manager is launching into local marketing.

Since March 2019, TrendEthics has been working with the NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde , which has a branch in the province of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, to set up a weaving cooperative for a village of the Lao ethnic group.

Their

faces

Pang
She is the oldest member of the cooperative and is in charge of dyeing! She worked with Doi to find the best recipes for the natural color catalog.
Pom

Pom knows how to ride a motorcycle, which makes her an excellent coordinator! She receives orders and gives instructions to the other weavers, then takes care of shipping the fabrics.
Giot
She is proud of her culture and enjoys weaving from her home.
No
Like the other women, she lives in a wooden house on stilts. She learned weaving from her mother.
Doi
She is the tallest in the cooperative. Doi knows a lot about dyeing, but she also loves weaving.
Vi Thi Tich
She learned to weave at the age of 13 or 14 and has been weaving every day since. She has cotton trees in her fields.

Before joining the cooperative, she worked from home, selling to a woman in the village, but earned very little. She hopes that by joining the cooperative, she will be able to preserve her culture and generate more income for her household.
Vi Thi Xien
She started weaving around the age of 13 with her mother who passed everything on to her.

Who are the Lao?

Collection woven by the Lao ethnic group of Dien Bien Phu in northeastern Vietnam.

Social organization and lifestyle

The Lao share a classic family social organization of the Tai peoples: villages (ban), chiefdoms (mueang or muong), each headed by a local Chao.

The society is communal, with strong family roots, without large-scale structured clans.

They mainly practice irrigated rice agriculture, supplemented by livestock farming, fishing, and gathering. Some also practice blacksmithing or traditional pottery.

Culture, language and beliefs

The Lao language belongs to the Tay-Thai group, close to the Lao spoken in Laos; despite a modest diaspora in Vietnam, the language retains its specificities and its own identity.

The Lao combine Theravada Buddhism with animist traditions related to fortune-telling or spirits (Satsana Phi). Festive ceremonies include dances (lam vong, folk dances) and traditional songs, accompanied by instruments such as drums, trumpets, lutes or flutes.

Textile Arts and Crafts

Embroidered weaving (brocade) is an essential skill, particularly prized. Lao women produce traditional clothing decorated with stylized motifs (leaves, birds, flowers), embroidered on cotton or linen skirts and blouses.

The patterns carry symbolic meanings; the Dien Bien state recently officially recognized the art of Lao clothing decoration as national intangible cultural heritage.

Traditional embroidery now provides a stable source of income for women, through the sale of handmade fabrics to visitors or through cooperatives.

Collection

Dokmai Cushion