CHIANGMAI HOMENET – A SUCCESS STORY

In the past, women in Chiangmai wove cloth to make clothing for themselves and their familes, and made bamboo utensils for their homes or farms. Rice farming was the main source of cash income.

In recent years, however, it has become more difficult for families to support themselves from farming. There has been a lot of migration from the villages to the cities. This has made women’s income from their homebased craftwork grow increasingly important.

Before Chiangmai HomeNet was set up, most women homebased workers in Chiangmai had made goods which they had sold themselves or to sub-contractors. Many had been dependent on traders and received low prices for their products. The Chiangmai HomeNet Project focused on handicrafts, and served as a better source of income for homebased workers and displaced women workers.

From an initial membership of 32 homebased workers, there were 28 groups with 952 members by 1994. In 1995, Chiangmai HomeNet had about 1000 members in over 30 village groups involved in paper making, bamboo and rattan weaving, cotton weaving and lacquer work.

HomeNet has encouraged the women to come together in groups for training. They have received training in group management and marketing, as well as in financial and technical skills to upgrade their work performance and incomes.

Many of the groups have learned how to sell their own products and some are now exporting. Some of the group leaders have travelled to other countries to meet with other homebased workers in the Philippines and Indonesia. Others have visited SEWA in Ahmedabad, India to find out about their work.

The groups have set up savings schemes and some have joined a credit union. They are also looking at ways to cover themselves in the event of sickness or accidents.

Chiangmai HomeNet plans to become an independent producers’ cooperative in order to continue its work in Chiangmai as well as to work together with other groups in HomeNet Thailand.

In the year 2000 , Homenet North was established to cover the upper and lower North provinces. It has started to create its own membership organization of homebased workers and create its own fund for self- sustainability. It also launched the Social Welfare Scheme as a pilot project with 50 members, which has expanded in the following years. In the year 2003, it also launched the Project on Health Promotion for Homebased Workers among six groups dealing with chemical dye. A Health Fund has been created as result of the training.