Fair Trade Businesses
At Daughters we are aiming for sustainable outcomes, in which clients can successfully live independ-ently in their own community, and achieve quality of life. An important part of girls being able to make and sustain lifestyle changes is provision of a job. Daughters has several small businesses to provide jobs and training to girls who leave the sex industry. Our businesses are fair trade, with higher salaries than in other comparable businesses in Cambodia, and good working conditions. Clients are able to access free supplementary services built into the working day including medical clinic, counseling clinic, creative programs, daycare, and educational programs.
Daughters has 5 small businesses. The Sewing Room employs the majority of clients, and currently pro-duces clothing, fashion accessories and home furnishings. These are sold through Daughters’ new shop and to overseas buyers. Many of our products use eco-friendly cotton produced by Goel, a local manufacturer who uses only 100% natural dyes and pays fair trade wages. Daughters has a beau-tiful new shop where these products are sold, housed in our visitor centre in downtown Phnom Penh. 13 clients from our day centre are employed at our visitor centre where they learn English and customer service skills, in addition to specialized skills.
The visitor centre also houses Daughters cafe, Sugar 'n Spice, where 6 clients are employed. Here girls cooking and customer service skills that enable them to move into high-end Hotels eventually. Another business is our small women's spa in the premises of the visitor centre, where our girls have been highly trained in massage techniques for hands and feet, head, shoulders and face. The 4th business is silk screen printing, and is producing a small range of t-shirts and other screen printed products which we are selling in our shop. And the 5th business is jewellery making, which takes place at the visitor center so that interested visitors can watch the production. Daughters promotes inclusion and peer-role mod-elling within our structures; there are levels of promotion that girls move into, including managers, head chef, trainers and designers. Daughters' model utilises a strategy of sustainability; by running small businesses we aim at becoming financially self-sustaining to reduce future donor dependence. We also seek to enable girls to graduate Daughters, moving into external employment or self-employment, using the skills learned; girls who have been at Daughters for 2 years are encouraged into the exit program, with a tailored plan to enable successful graduation from Daughters.
We are constantly looking for new markets overseas for our products. If you are interested in finding out more about our products or wish to receive our catalogue please contact us by email: design@daughterscambodia.org
