Refugee Women Start A Handicraft Cooperative

The Bhutanese Women’s Handicraft Cooperative (BWHC) is composed of approximately thirty women who produce beautiful handmade crafts for sale using traditional techniques and designs from Bhutan. The women are former refugees who fled ethnic persecution in Bhutan and lived in refugee camps in Nepal for almost twenty years. The U.S. government recently gave these women and other Bhutanese families the opportunity to make a new life in Baltimore with the assistance of the IRC in Baltimore and the Association of Bhutanese in America (ABA). 
 
The members of BWHC started their business as a means to share their artistic creations with the local community and earn some income to support their families. The staff of the IRC in Baltimore and ABA are providing the women with the technical assistance necessary to help them produce, market and develop a self sustaining business. The women are currently knitting and weaving hats and scarves for the winter and have begun selling them successfully.
 
Individuals interested in supporting BWHC can contact Ruben Chandrasekar (Bhutanese Community Program Coordinator) at 410-558-3178 or ruben.chandrasekar@theirc.org