Artisans D'Angkor is now a Cambodian limited company that has been originally created as an association in 1992, to help young people to find work in their home village by increasing family incomes and slowing down rural depopulation. We provide them with six months high-skilled training and a vocation from which they can make a living. This mission continues today: in Autumn 2009, Artisans D'Angkor is now training 47 young craftsmen.
We employ over 1,000 people, and of them over 750 involve craftsmen. Twelve workshops operate continually in Siem Reap province. We have pioneered a new social policy in Cambodia with contracted level of pay along with social and medical benefits, and 5% of our craftsmen are people with disabilities. The craftsmen have formed an association, which holds a 20-percent share in the company. This fully qualifies our company as a fair trade company.
We thus allow Cambodians to retrieve their cultural heritage so as to build their pride in their roots. It also gives them a sense of well-being, dignity and self-esteem to better approach the future.
Promoting Cambodian Fine Arts and Crafts: Our products
Long lost traditional techniques of dyeing and weaving such as Hol Lboeuk, Chorebap had been revived by Artisans D'Angkor. For Hol silk, one of the most beautiful Cambodian fabrics, the patterns are prepared in advance, referred to the unique resist dyeing technique of Ikat. Our scarves, clothes, accessories and home-furnishing collection are designed using our own hand-woven fabrics.
Throughout the years, we have become a label of genuine, high quality products. The UNESCO jury had granted many "Awards of Excellence, Authentic, Innovative and Marketable".
