Update on Sivorn Nuth

Update on Sivorn Nuth
Entrepreneur: Sivorn Nuth
Location: Kean Svay district, Cambodia
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=20176

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Sivorn lives just off National Road 1 south of Phnom Penh. This is the first loan she has taken out with Maxima. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.

Sivorn and her family, derive their primary income from weaving and from spinning raw, bulk thread onto spools. She used the money from the loan to buy a loom and to buy thread. This was another new business type for me. One of the preliminary stages of weaving requires that thread be spun onto spools. Five years ago Sivorn and her husband bought a used, hand-built spinning machine for US $300 (see photo). This machine can spin bulk thread onto spools twelve at a time. The technology of this spinner is a triumph of garage-level engineering. It’s constructed of coat-hanger wire, salvaged bearings, some basic plate steel bars and wood.

Technical refinement notwithstanding, this machine remains a source of income for Sivorn and her family. For the service of spinning thread onto spools, they charge 600 Riel (US $0.15) per kilogram. They demonstrated the machine for us and, by Western standards, this is not easy money. An electric motor and multiplicity increase productivity but the machine, as one might imagine, demands a great deal of attention and tender loving care. The machine itself suffers from breakdowns. Thread often snaps and needs to be re-tied. Electricity supplies are sporadic so their product is at the mercy of when they have power.

Sivorn and her family face other hurdles. The price of both electricity and raw thread keeps rising. Subsequently, they have had to increase the amount they charge by about twenty-five percent over the past three years.


The newer part of Sivorn’s business is weaving. The weavers of Kean Svay District weave the all-purpose, checked scarves called “kro mah.” The kro mah is the Swiss Army knife of textiles for Cambodians. They use it for everything from a towel to a head wrap to a sarong-like skirt to a satchel for carrying things to any number of other utilitarian purposes.

Kro mah don’t demand the quality of fabric that the silk fabrics do made by the weavers we’ve visited before. Business success is more a function of volume than quantity. Some years ago, the Kean Svay weavers switched over to semi-automatic power looms. These weave much more quickly than hand looms. Sivorn’s business helps support eight people. Her husband also works for the government. One of her children works with her when she isn’t studying.

Sivorn buys raw cotton and nylon thread from one of the large markets in Phnom Penh. She sells all of her finished “kro mah’s” for about $0.33 each to a middleman who comes to her house. She can make about 25 pieces per day.

Of Sivorn’s six children, four still study in school. She and her husband expressed the dual hope that they could continue to expand their business as well as help their children continue to study. They would like them to learn English and, if possible, attend university.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Kean Svay district, Cambodia
Nov 12, 2007