Update On Rasmey Tha

Update on Rasmey Tha
Entrepreneur: Rasmey Tha
Location: Muk Kampoul district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $210.00 of $500.00
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=10954

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Rasmey lives on an island in the Mekong River north of Phnom Penh. Her loan is being paid off on schedule. With the loan Rasmey bought silk and other weaving supplies. Before receiving the loan, she traded her finished goods to a middleman/vendor in exchange for raw materials. She had no leverage to bargain on pricing because she had no other options. Now she’s able to cut her costs by traveling to Phnom Penh buying at one of the large markets – a trip she makes about once every three months.

Rasmey has had two or three loans with Maxima before getting the current one. With the prior loan, she bought a motorcycle which she in turn sold to buy the small wooden house in which she lives with her husband their two year old son. They have another child on the way.

We met under her house which is typical in this area. Houses are raised on pilings or piers to escape the worst of the flooding of the Mekong River which forms the rear border of her yard. The area beneath the house serves as an all-purpose outdoor living/working space. Rasmey’s house, like most others here, shelters a large loom.

She invited the Maxima loan officer and me to sit on a teak and bamboo platform next to her loom where she worked. The Khmer people seem to have an extra gene for beautiful smiles but I’ve experienced little to prepare me for the warmth that radiated from Rasmey’s face when the loan officer explained that we were there to interview her about her loan.

It takes Rasmey about two days to complete one finished piece of woven cloth. She sells this to a middleman for about $8 (US). Occasionally, foreign tourists come to the island and she can sell a piece for as much as $14. Her demonstration of the complicated operation of the loom makes it difficult to believe that $8 is the gross revenue for one piece. The fixed costs per piece average between $5 and $6. She says she can finish about ten pieces per month.

She hopes to continue with her weaving so she can save enough to build a newer house. She also hopes to send her son to school so he can one day become a doctor.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Muk Kampoul district, Cambodia
Nov 1, 2007