Street kids pick up new weaving skill

(08-05-2007)

GIA LAI — Some adolescents in the Central Highland’s Glar Commune who could previously be found in the streets are now spending most of their days in a two-year-old brocade weaving programme.

Faced with a growing number of delinquent youth, in the spring of 2005 A Lung, president of Glar’s Youth Union Association, proposed plans for a youth weaving club to local authorities of the commune, located in Dak Doa District of Gia Lai Province.

The traditional handicraft has helped make adolescent unemployment a thing of the past in only two years of operation.

With his mother acting as chairwoman of the club, A Lung got started with an initial loan of only VND15 million. This could only part of the needed materials for the 35-member club.

A Lung solicited reputable weavers to become teachers at the club. Teachers and students travelled to different provinces, including Lam Dong, Kon Tum and Dak Lak, to find new designs and learn modern methods. He then sold finished products to shops in Gia Lai and the neighbouring province of Kon Tum.

Little by little, the reputation of his members’ quality work grew within the region. A Lung says he now receives orders from domestic agencies as well as Vietnamese people living overseas who swear by the product quality of the club’s young weavers.

Membership now touches 85, a number A Lung says usually increases during the summer because of the possible 1-million dong earnings per month. — VNS