Show at Filberg Lodge tomorrow combines business and helping
By Carol Sheehan, Comox Valley Echo July 22, 2011
The Filberg Lodge Gift Shop will be transformed this Saturday, July 23rd, by an exhibition of Cambodian silks from Lynda Drury, a local entrepreneur and fair trade importer of fine silk accessories.
Drury's story has many dimensions. After years of teaching part time at North Island College and running a community development consulting business, Drury felt it was time for a change. A founding member of Courtenay's World Community Film Festival in 1990, Drury was soon impressed by a Cambodian documentary about the silk industry. She fell in love with the beauty, colour and creativity of silk. True to the festival's avowed purpose, a "fierce light of compassionate activism that seeds social change" resonated within her.
She began to dream big, which resulted in a radical, life-altering decision to form a business that combined social justice, working with people from different cultures, a passion for silk, and a love of travel adventures. "The rest was written in my heart," she writes, "and Cambodia was calling. All that was required was to show up and commit all of my savings, time and inner resources to the project."
Obvious risks aside-for working overseas must take into consideration the obstacles of different business practices, global weather catastrophes and unpredictable markets- Drury launched Floating Stone Enterprises and made her first trip to Cambodia in 2005. She went armed, not only with knowledge and training, but also with conviction and a strong ethical foundation. From the beginning, Drury purchased from suppliers that ran small-scale business enterprises, cottage industries, and self-help organizations. She focused on buying from Cambodian businesses that worked to enhance the well being of others-businesses who act as contributors to their communities.
But that's only part of the story. When you check out Lynda Drury's excellent blog (floatingstonesilks.com/the_silk_blog) you will discover three words used over and over again: relationship, heart, and generosity.
Drury had to challenge herself with how to make an import business work and stay true to her values that centered on not taking advantage of the impoverished circumstances of the Cambodian people who are her business associates. Her goals and policies had to take in account the permeable membrane that exists when two cultures meet-the sharing of both good and bad features of each society.
A dilemma she faced early on was to develop a relationship with Cambodian businesses based on a mutual understanding of the "fair trade" concept.
"Importing with a social conscience is an adventure requiring a great deal of commitment and endless flexibility. It starts within, listening to the voice of compassion, and continues by following the road less traveled wherever it leads," she writes.
Attuned to these foundational ideas, Drury built an enterprising business based on collaboration, respect, quality products, and sound marketing.
"Floating Stone Enterprises is about people, building relationships and community," she explains.
"We live in a global community but we seldom have the opportunity to understand much about the lives of the people who work very long hours for very little money to bring us beauty and adornment."
For seven years, Drury has worked primarily with two suppliers. One woman, Kong Chim, lost her leg to a landmine at the age of 12 and now trains people with a range of disabilities, including other survivors of landmines, to work for her. Drury's second associate, San Vannery, is a passionate designer who loves to work with silk. Though she's a young mother, San Vannery also works for an NGO traveling all over Cambodia working with women's issues such as abuse, HIV AIDS, and gender awareness.
"She has transformed part of her household into a showroom and works at night and on weekends to create her masterpieces," writes Drury. "She hires and trains women to tailor for her and is supportive if they choose to set up their own businesses. She also hires other women to care for her children and to cook for the household, which includes several members of her extended family."
Drury's collaboration with San Vannery and Kong (and their families) brings Drury to Cambodia twice a year. Over the years, they have increasingly co-created original products. "We share our knowledge and skill bases to produce contemporary products that are more profitable for both of our businesses," writes Drury. "We meet in their storefronts, factories, homes, and in my hotel room. We go to the silk fabric shops where we 'play' with designs and colours, and share the joys of our passion for silk."
Drury's work goes beyond the silk business. She sometimes finds it difficult to return to her Comox Valley home after working with her Cambodian colleagues. "The really hard part for me is.feeling yet again that more has been given to me than I was able to give. And I miss the life that is lived in tiny "hole in the wall" places, amongst smiling eyes and the staccato sound of the Khmer language.
"Cambodia has been written in my heart and I need to return over and over. I need to stop looking for personal adventures and gain and find ways to help my friends with health, education for the children, prosthetic devices to assist them in walking without pain. I need to be able to help in ways that make me worthy of the constant kindness of my Cambodian friends. I need to stay in integrity and not get lost in the banal commercial values and 'imperatives' of our culture."
Lynda Drury has few illusions about what her business means to the people of Cambodia. Speaking with her, there is no "grand plan" to effect transformation in a country whose social, cultural and economic institutions were destroyed as a result of the dark history of the Pol Pot regime and the genocide which killed almost a fifth of Cambodia's people 30 years ago. Though ravaged for generations by war and corruption, Cambodia is still only limping along on the road to recovery, facing overwhelming challenges. Over 30% of Cambodia's people earn less than $1 a day.
"My heart aches for the conditions in which too many people in South Asia work and live. I suffer no illusions about 'making a difference.' There is no clear objective in the work that I share with my Cambodian friends," Drury writes, "apart from growing our businesses in a mutually supportive way. But each trip presents a multitude of opportunities for making a connection between our worlds and that is exciting.
"The amazing thing about Cambodia is how resilient the people are. Mostly, even the poorest of the poor will offer you a smile, and anything they have they will share with you. I have experienced so much generosity in Cambodia and it is my mission to find ways to give back to the kind, proud and beautiful people of this country."
Lynda Drury's community crosses the ocean, giving new meaning to the idea of acting locally and thinking globally, for she acts and thinks in both realms. Appreciating the struggle local businesses have competing against offshore labour costs and overheads, she says, "I know that my business really struggles to compete with the pretty scarves and wraps from India and China, most of which are made in sweatshops.
"I just hope," she continues, "that it becomes equally obvious that whatever suffering is experienced by one, is in the long term experienced by all. So if we turn our backs on Fair Trade goods, in favour of our local products only, are we not simply trading one problem for another. It seems to me that most consumers who care, get this. It also seems that thoughtful inclusion of fair trade just makes for a better range of product offerings for all. Buy local and buy fair trade global for the good of all."
In addition to searching for ways to be useful to those making the silk products for her company, she is currently researching how to grow the world's first sustainable Fair Trade silk, and to help revitalize the silk producing sector in Cambodia using permaculture methods to start growing the mulberry trees which provide the leaves for the silk worms to feast on.
There's more to the story about relationships, heart, and generosity that connects beautiful Cambodian silks and the basic needs of the people. Drury is happy to share those stories.
Visit Lynda Drury at the Filberg Lodge Gift Shop, Saturday, July 23rd from 11 to 4. The lovely silk accessories are evidence of all that Lynda Drury brings to her business in collaboration with the businesses of her two Cambodian associates. See why she says, "Each of our silk products has a tiny heart beating inside. This heart is tuned to the world heartbeat and it is a happy tune!" When you understand this simple truth, Linda Drury claims, "You will be written in Cambodia's heart forever."
By Carol Sheehan, Comox Valley Echo July 22, 2011
The Filberg Lodge Gift Shop will be transformed this Saturday, July 23rd, by an exhibition of Cambodian silks from Lynda Drury, a local entrepreneur and fair trade importer of fine silk accessories.
Drury's story has many dimensions. After years of teaching part time at North Island College and running a community development consulting business, Drury felt it was time for a change. A founding member of Courtenay's World Community Film Festival in 1990, Drury was soon impressed by a Cambodian documentary about the silk industry. She fell in love with the beauty, colour and creativity of silk. True to the festival's avowed purpose, a "fierce light of compassionate activism that seeds social change" resonated within her.
She began to dream big, which resulted in a radical, life-altering decision to form a business that combined social justice, working with people from different cultures, a passion for silk, and a love of travel adventures. "The rest was written in my heart," she writes, "and Cambodia was calling. All that was required was to show up and commit all of my savings, time and inner resources to the project."
Obvious risks aside-for working overseas must take into consideration the obstacles of different business practices, global weather catastrophes and unpredictable markets- Drury launched Floating Stone Enterprises and made her first trip to Cambodia in 2005. She went armed, not only with knowledge and training, but also with conviction and a strong ethical foundation. From the beginning, Drury purchased from suppliers that ran small-scale business enterprises, cottage industries, and self-help organizations. She focused on buying from Cambodian businesses that worked to enhance the well being of others-businesses who act as contributors to their communities.
But that's only part of the story. When you check out Lynda Drury's excellent blog (floatingstonesilks.com/the_silk_blog) you will discover three words used over and over again: relationship, heart, and generosity.
Drury had to challenge herself with how to make an import business work and stay true to her values that centered on not taking advantage of the impoverished circumstances of the Cambodian people who are her business associates. Her goals and policies had to take in account the permeable membrane that exists when two cultures meet-the sharing of both good and bad features of each society.
A dilemma she faced early on was to develop a relationship with Cambodian businesses based on a mutual understanding of the "fair trade" concept.
"Importing with a social conscience is an adventure requiring a great deal of commitment and endless flexibility. It starts within, listening to the voice of compassion, and continues by following the road less traveled wherever it leads," she writes.
Attuned to these foundational ideas, Drury built an enterprising business based on collaboration, respect, quality products, and sound marketing.
"Floating Stone Enterprises is about people, building relationships and community," she explains.
"We live in a global community but we seldom have the opportunity to understand much about the lives of the people who work very long hours for very little money to bring us beauty and adornment."
For seven years, Drury has worked primarily with two suppliers. One woman, Kong Chim, lost her leg to a landmine at the age of 12 and now trains people with a range of disabilities, including other survivors of landmines, to work for her. Drury's second associate, San Vannery, is a passionate designer who loves to work with silk. Though she's a young mother, San Vannery also works for an NGO traveling all over Cambodia working with women's issues such as abuse, HIV AIDS, and gender awareness.
"She has transformed part of her household into a showroom and works at night and on weekends to create her masterpieces," writes Drury. "She hires and trains women to tailor for her and is supportive if they choose to set up their own businesses. She also hires other women to care for her children and to cook for the household, which includes several members of her extended family."
Drury's collaboration with San Vannery and Kong (and their families) brings Drury to Cambodia twice a year. Over the years, they have increasingly co-created original products. "We share our knowledge and skill bases to produce contemporary products that are more profitable for both of our businesses," writes Drury. "We meet in their storefronts, factories, homes, and in my hotel room. We go to the silk fabric shops where we 'play' with designs and colours, and share the joys of our passion for silk."
Drury's work goes beyond the silk business. She sometimes finds it difficult to return to her Comox Valley home after working with her Cambodian colleagues. "The really hard part for me is.feeling yet again that more has been given to me than I was able to give. And I miss the life that is lived in tiny "hole in the wall" places, amongst smiling eyes and the staccato sound of the Khmer language.
"Cambodia has been written in my heart and I need to return over and over. I need to stop looking for personal adventures and gain and find ways to help my friends with health, education for the children, prosthetic devices to assist them in walking without pain. I need to be able to help in ways that make me worthy of the constant kindness of my Cambodian friends. I need to stay in integrity and not get lost in the banal commercial values and 'imperatives' of our culture."
Lynda Drury has few illusions about what her business means to the people of Cambodia. Speaking with her, there is no "grand plan" to effect transformation in a country whose social, cultural and economic institutions were destroyed as a result of the dark history of the Pol Pot regime and the genocide which killed almost a fifth of Cambodia's people 30 years ago. Though ravaged for generations by war and corruption, Cambodia is still only limping along on the road to recovery, facing overwhelming challenges. Over 30% of Cambodia's people earn less than $1 a day.
"My heart aches for the conditions in which too many people in South Asia work and live. I suffer no illusions about 'making a difference.' There is no clear objective in the work that I share with my Cambodian friends," Drury writes, "apart from growing our businesses in a mutually supportive way. But each trip presents a multitude of opportunities for making a connection between our worlds and that is exciting.
"The amazing thing about Cambodia is how resilient the people are. Mostly, even the poorest of the poor will offer you a smile, and anything they have they will share with you. I have experienced so much generosity in Cambodia and it is my mission to find ways to give back to the kind, proud and beautiful people of this country."
Lynda Drury's community crosses the ocean, giving new meaning to the idea of acting locally and thinking globally, for she acts and thinks in both realms. Appreciating the struggle local businesses have competing against offshore labour costs and overheads, she says, "I know that my business really struggles to compete with the pretty scarves and wraps from India and China, most of which are made in sweatshops.
"I just hope," she continues, "that it becomes equally obvious that whatever suffering is experienced by one, is in the long term experienced by all. So if we turn our backs on Fair Trade goods, in favour of our local products only, are we not simply trading one problem for another. It seems to me that most consumers who care, get this. It also seems that thoughtful inclusion of fair trade just makes for a better range of product offerings for all. Buy local and buy fair trade global for the good of all."
In addition to searching for ways to be useful to those making the silk products for her company, she is currently researching how to grow the world's first sustainable Fair Trade silk, and to help revitalize the silk producing sector in Cambodia using permaculture methods to start growing the mulberry trees which provide the leaves for the silk worms to feast on.
There's more to the story about relationships, heart, and generosity that connects beautiful Cambodian silks and the basic needs of the people. Drury is happy to share those stories.
Visit Lynda Drury at the Filberg Lodge Gift Shop, Saturday, July 23rd from 11 to 4. The lovely silk accessories are evidence of all that Lynda Drury brings to her business in collaboration with the businesses of her two Cambodian associates. See why she says, "Each of our silk products has a tiny heart beating inside. This heart is tuned to the world heartbeat and it is a happy tune!" When you understand this simple truth, Linda Drury claims, "You will be written in Cambodia's heart forever."
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