Viet Artisans is a social enterprise project in Vinh Long, Vietnam that provides jobs for disadvantaged women making handcrafted products. The project was started by Lily Phan and her aunt Lan to create stable jobs for rural women. It provides a safe work environment and support like scholarships. The women make products featuring Vietnamese culture and history that are sold in hotels and given as gifts. The project aims to expand to help more women and turn into its own brand while keeping the local crafts and cultures of each region.

1. 48 | Word June 2013
A Meaningful Memento
Based in Vinh Long, Viet Artisans produce beautiful,
hand-crafted products that reflect the country’s heritage.
The project also provides work and support for women
from disadvantaged families. Words by Tess Somerville,
photos by Mads Monsen
“Viet Artisans provides
a living wage, a safe
and comfortable working
environment, scholarships
for their children to keep
them enrolled in school,
and most importantly, the
stability needed to plan
for the future”
INSIDER

2. June 2013 Word | 49

3. 50 | Word June 2013
T
here’s certainly no shortage of
souvenirs to be bought in Ho Chi
Minh City. Stainless steel miniature
cyclos, plastic-wrapped non la and
paper fans all have an invasive presence
in the city centre. These knick-knacks
line sidewalks and fill local markets to
bursting — endless reproductions of
a crystallised image of what tourists
imagine Vietnam to be, a homage to a
country that is becoming more and more
difficult to grasp.
Viet Artisans offers an alternative for
those wishing to take something home
that is well-crafted, and in the gift-buying
process helps them to enrich their experience
of Vietnam. Even more importantly, the
social enterprise redirects all profits made
from their handmade crafts back to members
of Vietnamese society that are in great
need of aid — economically disadvantaged
women in rural Vietnam.
Teach a Man to Fish
The project was launched one year ago by
Lily Phan and her aunt Lan as a way to
create jobs for women in Vinh Long Province
in the Mekong Delta. A Vinh Long native
who grew up in the US, Lily wanted to put
the money she earned in the private sector
abroad towards job creation in rural areas in
her home country.
“My early childhood in the 1980s [before
Vietnam opened up] left a very deep
impression on me,” she says. “I was lucky
enough to grow up in the US. When I got
back I saw that people were very hard
working but didn’t have the opportunity to
break the poverty cycle.”
Lily’s aunt Lan was likewise eager to get
involved in job creation. Being disabled, Lan
is no stranger to struggle. “I already know
what it’s like to have it hard, but when I do
charity work I see that other people’s lives
are harder than mine,” she explains. “I see
women with no jobs, whose husbands have
no jobs, and I want to give them some sort of
help, to give them a skill that they can take
with them.”
With their ‘teach a man to fish’ initiative,
Lily and Lan began work building a
workshop on Lily’s grandmother’s land,
located on the beautiful little island of An
Binh. The open air structure, built largely by
volunteer labour, is beautiful and simple — a
tile floor, a thatched roof, bamboo screens to
protect from the rain, and rustic benches and
tables hand-carved from upcycled wood.
Unfortunately, it is vastly more comfortable
and secure than the homes many of the
workers live in.
The Workers
According to Lan, a few of the women live
in worn-down thatch-roofed huts in grave
need of repair — they also have to deal
with major flooding during rainy season.
Others, like expectant mother Ty, are forced
to squat in public buildings. Ty currently
resides at a local church with her husband
and 13-year-old son. Her dream is to one day
earn enough to buy her own land and build
a house for her family.
Before coming to Viet Artisans, these
women, aged 18 to 40, mainly did odd jobs
as fruit pickers, vendors, factory workers or
even construction workers. Their work was
physically taxing and financially unreliable.
While many still struggle to support their
families, Viet Artisans provides a living
wage, a safe and comfortable working
environment, scholarships for their children
to keep them enrolled in school, and most
importantly, the stability needed to plan for
the future.
It was difficult to generate interest in
the programme at first, even when Lan
and Lily went door to door reaching out to
those living in the worst conditions. A lack
of trust, as well as pressure from jealous or
possessive husbands, made many women
hesitant to join. Today, now the effectiveness
of the programme has been proven, and
many women are eager to participate.
Unfortunately, Viet Artisans now has more
applicants than it is able to support.
Beneficiaries are chosen based solely on
financial need. Because most of the women
come with no craft skills, and often with

4. June 2013 Word | 51
Information
You can find Viet Artisans’ products in
Ho Chi Minh City at L’usine Café (70B
Le Loi, Q1). They are also sold at Six
Senses Con Dao, Banyan Tree Lang Co,
La Residence and Fusion Maia.
To contact Viet Artisans to arrange for
a craft workshop, visit their website at
vietartisans.org
hands that are gnarled and swollen from
manual labour, production is not always
fast. However, each product is made with
care and attention, and is made to reflect the
workers’ heritage. The pieces often showcase
images representing an important aspect of
Vietnamese culture or history, for example a
bronze drum (an ancient part of Vietnamese
spiritual life, representing wealth and
power) or a lotus flower (the national flower
of Vietnam, signifying beauty, purity and
transcendence).
The Products
Each piece comes with a card explaining
its meaning, giving some background
information on the history of Vietnam, or
explaining the country’s current condition.
“We think there is a lot of richness
in Vietnamese culture,” Lily explains.
“However, Vietnamese society is globalising
too fast. Every year tourists come looking for
something a little more vintage, but instead
they see more and more of these concrete
jungles — they don’t get to let the culture
really sink in.” Accompanying a handbag
made from upcycled rice sacks, for example,
is a traditional Vietnamese poem about the
importance of rice — “When you hold a
bowl of rice / Every single white grain /
contains the farmer’s sweat.” A reusable tote
bag comes with a card explaining Vietnam’s
fragile ecological condition. A notebook
comes with the wish that the owner will
travel through the country, see all that
Vietnam has to offer, and document the
journey.
Viet Artisans relies not only on the time
and energy of its volunteers, but also on
their creativity. Many of the contributing
designers are volunteers in their early 20s.
Current resident designer Tony Dang is
a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades — an
artisan, bike mechanic and tattoo artist,
among other things. The California native
will be staying in Vinh Long for the next
few months to contribute ideas and to help
the ladies hone their craft and develop
their aesthetics. Tony’s modern and edgy
sensibilities combine with Lan’s elegant
style, resulting in products that are multi-
functional, environmentally friendly, and
extremely attractive.
The Future
Lily hopes for Viet Artisans to one day
evolve into its own brand. She also hopes to
expand in order to have schools all around
the country, using materials indigenous to
each region and creating products that reflect
the unique culture of each locality. Schools
and workshops will not only provide a space
for beneficiaries to learn and create, but
will also serve as a fun getaway for visitors
and city dwellers who wish to relax as
well as learn about crafting and traditional
Vietnamese designs. During my visit I had a
chance to learn how to screen print a bronze
drum onto my own tote bag under Tony and
Lan’s guidance.
Right now a large part of their market
is hotels and corporate gifts in major cities
in Vietnam. “We sell [these products] to
people staying in five-star hotels,” Lily
explains. “In doing so, we are creating gifts
for some of the richest people in the world
that are made by some of the poorest people
in the world. We’re providing meaningful
crafts, something that people can bring
home to share their experiences with their
families, closing the gap between those two
groups.”
Since many of the workers have never had
the opportunity to leave Vinh Long Province,
it’s nice to think that some of their creations
may find homes all across the world.