In 1976, Kommaly Chanthavong founded a cooperative for the production of silk, which she still heads. The cooperative teaches mostly women traditional skills in raising silkworms, making natural dyes and weaving traditional patterns. The successful marketing of the products provides a fair and steady income to several hundred families, supporting the socio-economic development of local communities.
Kommaly was 11 years old when her village was destroyed by US bombers attacking the Ho Chi Minh Trail. She walked for a month to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, bringing with her silk weaving skills that her family has been engaged in for generations. Following this devastating experience, Kommaly met many desperately poor families displaced from rural areas without any marketable skills. In 1976, she founded a cooperative with 10 members; now there are more than 3,000. In a model farm which she manages with her equally dedicated husband, Kommaly offers courses on the production of high-quality textiles: from growing mulberry trees to raising silkworms, to spinning the ultra-fine threads, to preparing natural dyes and weaving traditional patterns.
Photos from touring their production and silk farm.
Text from Mullberries website.
