Jungle Vine Foundation Inc

NatureBag Khmu/Lao Poverty Reduction Project Status December 2015

Soon to celebrate its 10 year anniversary, the JungleVine® Foundation presents this summary of achievements, activities and plans:

Initially energized by a souvenir gift from Lao university student Sou to world-citizen/ Iowan “Bicycle Bill” in 2006, the NatureBag Khmu/Lao Poverty Reduction Project now operates globally as a not-for-profit public charity (the JungleVine® Foundation) and in Laos as a social enterprise chartered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Lao JungleVine® Development Co. Ltd).

Approximately 14,500 items (mostly traditional Khmu multipurpose carry bags/totes) made from JungleVine® have been purchased from ~750 households in 30+ villages or settlements in five northern Lao provinces directly affecting more than 2,500 people and indirectly impacting many thousands more. All activities are undertaken using fair trade principles and with sensitivity towards preserving the enduring cultural characteristics of the Khmu tribe as determined by its members.

In 2006 and other early years, the purchased handicrafts were paid for by exchanging comfort items such as clothing and blankets, work tools and building supplies – village isolation, sometimes as great as a 3-day trek, made money useless to the rural Khmu.

Subsequently, advancements in transportation and communications, the availability of electricity and science-oriented healthcare plus increased desire and opportunity for education have resulted in emergence of monetary-based markets in which the Project has become the most prominent of three players. It is the only non-governmental participant. It also is providing critical support to the other entities.

From 2011 through 2015, 9,117 products were purchased at a total cost of nearly

$50,000. About 90% went directly to the artisans and their families. Initially the Khmu were reluctant to produce goods for sale. There now is an increasing desire and capability for sharing their homemade handicrafts in any quantity for which a market exists. As at the beginning, the Khmu still establish their prices, not on the basis of a survival necessity, but because they enjoy being creative and want to improve their lives. For as many as 5000 years, their culture has been self-sufficient—subsisting on gathering life necessities in mountainside jungle forests. In today’s rapidly developing Laos, desire is emerging to give children non-traditional life opportunities and to acquire now useful things such as phones, motorbikes and appliances.

Global marketing of the Khmu handicrafts has not been as quick to progress as our work in the Lao jungles. More than 9,000 items are unsold. This is not so much due to lack of demand as it is to our focusing of available resources for work inside Laos. A myriad of problems involving communications, accessibility, quality control, logistics and developments over which we could have no control have impeded progress in making the global community aware of what the Khmu traditional handicraft and their JungleVine® fiber can accomplish. Their sustainable earth-friendly style, utilitarian superiority and the mitigation of global warming remain relatively unknown. 

The year 2015 resulted in encouraging progress.  Khmu bags have become trendy in style centers such as Paris, Barcelona and Milan. Madewell, a subsidiary of J.Crew®, experienced excellent results with a couple of hundred JungleBags® sold in a few of its shops and online. The artisans today are finishing several hundred jumbo sized private label bags for an exclusive high-end Spain-based global boutique alliance.

During the summer of 2015, two more of the six Lao owners of Lao JungleVine® Development had their first experiences in the United States as part of our organizational development efforts. What they saw and learned combined with the enrichment they brought to our American team will pay off in the coming years.

Lao JungleVine® Development is successfully operating a guesthouse in Luang Prabang and is exploring the acquisition of another. The Project’s investments in hospitality assure the ongoing income stream needed to sustain our mission’s progress within Laos and a neighboring province of Thailand. 

Some hospitality income, augmented by a grant and a loan from the Foundation (subsequently repaid), allowed for the purchase of a 2015 Isuzu vehicle used as a countryside tool, in guesthouse operations, for organizational development and as an aid in getting donations from foreign guests. It also has greatly boosted self-esteem among those working for the Project while adding local prominence to our mission.