Mekong Quilts was founded in 2001 as an income generation project under the umbrella of parent NGO, Mekong Plus. We specialise in high-quality, hand-crafted quilts, cushions and accessories. We employ women in communities northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (Duc Linh, Tanh Linh and Ham Thuan Nam in Binh Thuan Province) and Long My in the Mekong Delta. Mekong+ also offers employment opportunities to Camb
odian women through a similar project located in the village of Rumdoul, near the Vietnam / Cambodia border. Quilting is perfect as an employment activity, as it requires a small investment to begin with and is labour intensive. Thanh Truong, a Vietnamese dentist in HCMC recognised these qualities and through her passion for quilts, began the programme with just 35 women. The first quilts were sold in the homes of friends. There are now five shops and over 200 women in full time employment. The women receive training, a fair wage and other benefits and work in a safe and comfortable environment. Many of the women who work for the project have doubled their income, which ensures their children remain in school. The women work in groups and each group leader take the products to HCMC once a month when completed. A team in Ho Chi Minh City creates new designs, provides training, the quality checks of all work, provides the fabric... and does the marketing the products worldwide. The quilters are paid once the products pass the quality control inspection. All profits generated from the sale of our products are reinvested into the community through Mekong Plus (NGO): scholarships for children, agricultural training and micro-finance programmes, etc. As a result, not only does your support through the purchase of products help to provide sustainable employment to women but the profits from the sales also benefit the poor communities in which they live. From the start Mekong Quilts has been designed to aim at the highest quality: compete with the best on quality, and not on price with average handicrafts. We are proud to know Mekong Quilts' quality is unmatched not only in Vietnam but also in the region. Customers are happy to buy a quilt at a low price while knowing it would be priced at least 4 times more in Sydney, London or New York. Professional designers from Australia and France, sometimes also from the USA, bring new ideas and to train the 4 Vietnamese designers. There is a wide range of hundreds of designs ranging from contemporary to Asian-inspired designs. There are a variety of quilts to choose from which include different colours and themes.
