All sectors / Fashion & Accessories / WEAVE
Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand
Add a review
WEAVE (Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment) is a profound social enterprise based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, dedicated to uplifting marginalized indigenous women, refugees, and their children. Founded in 1990, the organization partners with talented artisans from remote hill tribe villages and refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. By creating exquisite handwoven fair trade housewares and accessories, WEAVE actively addresses severe poverty and food insecurity while fostering critical social cohesion. The enterprise is a guaranteed member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), strictly upholding fair wages, gender equality, and safe working conditions. Deeply committed to environmental harmony, WEAVE utilizes sustainable natural dyes extracted from local bark, fruits, and leaves. Operating with a robust philanthropic mission, absolutely all generated profits are systematically reinvested to provide essential education, environmental programs, supplementary food, and emergency shelter for highly vulnerable displaced communities in need.
Mitos Urgel
CEO
Operating since 1990
Eco-system
Mountains
Villages
Forests
Sub-sectors
Handicraft & Artisan Products
Social Enterprise
Fair Trade
Ethical Fashion
A Chiang Mai fair trade enterprise empowering indigenous women and refugees through handwoven, eco-friendly textiles.
Method and Technique of WEAVE are:
Remote Refugee Camp Artisan Collaboration: The enterprise utilizes a highly specialized, decentralized human resources method, establishing direct communication and safe, collaborative manufacturing partnerships with vulnerable women living inside restricted Karen and Karenni refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.
Ancestral Handloom Textile Weaving: WEAVE employs an authentic, zero-electricity fabrication technique where skilled indigenous artisans manually operate traditional wooden handlooms, weaving raw natural fibers into high-quality, durable fabrics for their diverse line of contemporary housewares and lifestyle accessories.
Sustainable Botanical Dye Extraction: They utilize a profound ecological coloring method by foraging and sustainably harvesting local botanical materials—such as native tree bark, seasonal fruits, and leaves—to manually boil and extract rich, natural dye pigments without degrading the surrounding forest ecosystem.
WFTO Certified Ethical Supply Chain Management: The organization employs a rigorous operational compliance technique, continuously auditing their remote artisan networks and material sourcing processes to guarantee absolute adherence to the strict fair wage and safety standards mandated by the World Fair Trade Organization.
Cross-Border Social Cohesion Facilitation: WEAVE utilizes a community-based psychological support method, structuring their artisan training programs to encourage teamwork and shared creative problem-solving, which effectively rebuilds trust and social cohesion among women who have survived severe displacement trauma.
Philanthropic Profit Reinvestment System: They employ a closed-loop social enterprise financial technique where absolutely all revenue generated from international retail and wholesale distribution is automatically captured and diverted to fund supplementary food programs, vital emergency shelter, and ongoing educational initiatives.
Support concious people make more insightful choices
Found any error in information about this organisation?
Are you owner of WEAVE?
Similar companies
Danfe Works
Lalitpur, Bagmati Province, Nepal
A Lalitpur-based social enterprise empowering marginalized young women. Danfe Works produces sustainable clothing using natural fibers and azo-free dyes, while offering custom manufacturing services and reinvesting profits into community training.
NEOCOCO
United States
NEOCOCO is a women-led social enterprise in Los Angeles that sells hand-embroidered apparel, accessories, baby items and home goods. Its products are made by refugee, immigrant and displaced women resettling in the city. Through its Empowerment Program, participants receive paid training and employment in embroidery, knitting, crochet and weaving. A Funding Program provides microgrants and coaching for small businesses, and wraparound services include childcare, English classes and financial coaching. The organisation describes its approach as trauma-informed and built around the skills women already have. Good On You rates NEOCOCO Good overall, with Good for people and It's a Start for both planet and animals. It notes that the final production stage takes place entirely in the United States and that runs are kept limited, but that the brand uses few lower-impact materials.
INDIMODA
Arlington, Virginia, United States
INDIMODA is an Arlington sustainable brand producing clothing and personal care products. They empower women artisans through fair wages, utilize hand-block printed fabrics, and upcycle fabric scraps into beautiful accessories.
Kandygs Handlooms
Maharagama, Western Province, Sri Lanka
A Sri Lankan enterprise founded in 1971, Kandygs Handlooms produces sustainable cotton and bamboo textiles. They empower rural women artisans through fair wages, training, and robust community education support programs.
ARTICLE22
United States
ARTICLE22 is a US for-profit social enterprise selling jewelry and home goods handmade by artisans in Laos. Its first collection, PEACEBOMB, is made by Laotian craftspeople using metal scrap and shrapnel left over from the Vietnam War. Each piece supports MAG (Mines Advisory Group) in clearing unexploded ordnance. The brand says that growing sales allow artisans to create new designs, build their businesses and contribute more to clearance work. Founder Elizabeth Suda started the company after meeting villagers in Laos who melted US bombs into spoons. The brand reports customers in over 40 countries. Good On You rates ARTICLE22 Good overall and Great for people. It notes the brand's mission to improve social conditions in Laos, its tracing of most of its supply chain and living wages for final-stage workers. On the environment, Good On You credits its use of upcycled materials and limited production runs. The brand appears to use leather and has no evidence of an animal welfare policy, which gives it an animals score of It's a Start.
