TTC Work At Huay Ja Khan Village

Huay Ja Khan Village, Chiang dao District, Chiang Mai Province



Huay Ja Khan Village

 Ban Huay Ja Khan is a Lahu Christian village located at about 210 kilometer north of Chiang Mai city. It was set up about 35 years ago and there was no public services at the beginning and the village could be reached by walking from the highway about 8 kilometer from the village.. The village has 105 households with a population 800 persons, 200 men, 400 women and 200 youths and children. TTC started working with craft women about 25 years ago. The items made by this producer group includes Shoulder Bags, Plain cloth of various width and length, Pattern woven cloth, Christmas runners and wall hangings, hand woven by back-strap loom.

There are several public services now. The road to the village is paved, piped water supply and electricity is available. There is a primary school with 320 students, 12 teachers. Children from nearby villages are also attending this school. There is a student hostel supported by the Compassion International. There is a clinic but there is no fulltime health worker.

Each household has a limited size of land that the can grow rice, corn and beans but their earning from agriculture is not enough for all year round. Therefore, villagers need supplementary income. Some of them go to Chiang Mai city to work at different places, such as daily labor at the construction sites, Restaurants, Karaoke etc, and some remain in the village and involving crafts making, such as 25 producers whom TTC is supporting. Agriculture is still the main job for the villagers and 50% of family income is from agriculture products and domestic animals, 30% from labor and 20% from sales of handicrafts. Out of the income from handicrafts sales 79% from TTC and 21% from annual handicrafts sale to the Royal Project.

About ten households have no land for agriculture and their income is mainly come from the wage of daily labor. As for TTC producers, they have no market beside TTC. Quality control is done by individual producer in accordance with the instruction of TTC buyer. They have problem of fund to invest when they receive order for quantity weaving. Color availability is some time a problem for producers. If the order is too small it effect the travel expenses of the producers. To summarize TTC have to work closely with producer group to help solve their problems.

Huay Ja Khan Producers Group