Update Sokhom Suon

Update Sokhom Suon
Entrepreneur: Sokhom Suon
Location: Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $34.00 of $200.00
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=17427

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Sokhom lives on the shore of the Mekong River east of Phnom Penh. This is the third loan she has taken out with Maxima. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.

Sokhom, 29 years old, derives her primary income from weaving. She used the funds from this loan to buy silk and cotton thread for her loom. When she was fifteen, she commuted to a nearby island in the Mekong known for weaving to learn the craft. The apprenticeship took a year and she paid for it with the output of her work. Learning in this way, while unheard of, is not common. Weavers usually learn the skill from their mothers. Sokhom explained that beginning weavers always start using only nylon thread because it’s both the cheapest and easiest to work with. They move up to cotton and finally silk thread – the latter after about six months.

Out of curiosity I asked if Sokhom was still in contact with her teacher. She and the other gathered ladies broke into giggles. She then politely said she hadn’t been back to that island in many years. I asked if she continued the tradition by teaching anyone else and she replied that she’d taught one of her younger sisters to weave.

As noted above, interviews often turn into impromptu neighborhood gatherings. We invariably talk with people in the open live/work spaces beneath their stilt houses. While the Maxima loan officer and I spoke with Sokhom the crowd of women, men and children grew from three to at least fifteen. As the loan officer recited my questions in Khmer (Cambodian), many observers offered enthusiastic responses. It would be quite an understatement to say that these villages don’t see many non-Khmers. With the entreeof the loan officer, the people warm up very quickly and the interview can become a fun event.

Sokhom travels to one of the large markets in Phnom Penh to buy her raw materials. She sells her finished pieces to a middleman in the village. One of her finished pieces sells for $9.00 and she can make about fifteen in a month. Like most weavers I’ve interviewed, she explained that costs of raw materials like cotton and silk keep going up but the price for her finished goods keeps going down. She said she never with withholds her finished goods even if she doesn’t like the price. She needs the money too much. I asked if the weaving styles changed over time and what she does accommodate that. She replied that she tries to weave whatever demand dictates.

Sokhom and her husband also farm rice. In about three weeks, after the official end of the rainy season (demarcated by the very large “water festival”) they will begin preparing the fields for planting. She says they can harvest up to 5000 kilograms in a good season. What the family does not keep to eat, they sell. She said paying a buffalo owner to plow the field costs 100,000 Riel ($25.00). They also have to pay for the seed, fertilizer and pesticide. The un-milled rice sells for about 500 Riel (US $0.13) a kilo – slim profit for a lot of very hard physical work.

Three people live from the proceeds of her weaving and the family’s farming – she, her husband and their two year-old daughter (see photo). Her husband also does construction work when he can find it. In the future, Sokhom would like to have more children and, with luck, give them a good education.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Nov 7, 2007