Krama Heritage: Cambodia's Ancestral Scarf: Fashion for a Cause
- Business
- Employment
- Fair trade
- Labor
- Marketing
- Social enterprise
- Trade
- At risk youth
- Child care
- Child protection
- Education
- Community development
- Economic development
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.
Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?
Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Founding Story
Team
I was contacted by an Ashoka member following my participation to the Ben & Jerry's challenge
Raphael Bessis, co-Founder of Krama Heritage
No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Responsible Consumption and Production.
I have led and achieved success in two previous entrepreneurial projects:
-At the age of 10, I created and ran for three years my junior high school's newspaper "Le P'tit HIV". The idea was to write about school's life, the teachers, the news, etc. I assembled a team of 4 people, break down the roles between the editors and the printing, and our issues would sell at 200 copies+, sold at 2 Francs apiece. The P'tit HIV was continued further in the Henri IV Junior High-school
-During my college years at ESSEC, with three friends of mine we started our campus' radio talk show main program, "T'avais Qu'à Ecouter" starting with a recording studio facilitated by our school. We would have guests and discuss around structured chronicles about the life in college, including some gossiping I must admit. We started stuttering around our microphones, and then each of us found their own role, I became the leader of the show by devising every show's program and contents, we had a strong marketing and communication campaign through Facebook and posters. We ran the show for 3 years. At the end, we had 1,000+ listeners per show, out of a 1,500 total reachable audience
We are working hand-in-hand with the NGO PSE, with the Euro chamber of commerce and with the French-based association Social 3.0 supporting social entrepreneurs. We are working with many bloggers which support our brand and project and, most of all, with the community by and large: more than 400 persons in many countries have participated in our communication campaign effort by posing with their Krama. Posing with one's Krama is the exact hyphen of the two parts of Krama Heritage: commercial/brand and social/project-focused by sending a message of hope to Cambodian people by showing them that their scarf is today worn with pride and elegance around the world.