Ms. Heng Thai Ly (Cambodian)

Personal History:

Heng Thai Ly was born in Prey Veng Province, Southeastern Part of Phnom Penh, in a poor family.  She had 3 brothers and 3 sisters.  One of her relatives died during the Khmer Rouge Regime.  In 1987, she decided to come into Phnom Penh City to work at the Ministry of Social Action.  She was a staff member in charge of administrative affairs at the Handicap Department (Veteran Department) of the Ministry of Social Action.  In 1990, she was appointed to work at the Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Social Action.  She was in charge for documents (filing management and typing). Then, she was elected to be a member to work in the NGO Program in 1991.  She was  was in a management position at Skill Training Program and serves and invaluable role in the workings of the program.  Her responsibilities include managing the showroom and production workshops, quality assurance and promoting handicrafts made by the disabled.  For the past eleven years, she has often been called upon to help secure jobs for people with disabilities and to promote products made by them.  She has also found markets for their products, and she has worked directly with  producers to sell their products and develop their business skills, as well as she has worked with disabled people in micro enterprises and manages a successful craft marketing center, in Phnom Penh.  As the handicraft shop assistant, she has learned more about running the retail business.  She has had many years' experiences and contacted that can hopefully make the project even more successful.  She used to attend a trade conference and short apprenticeship programmed in the United States to do a one-month internship at Global Exchange in San Francisco in July, 1995 and then to attend a week long conference on fair trade in Berkeley.  She has also been with Skill Training Grogram for Landmine and Polio Disabled Cambodians since 1991, working mainly with Mr.  hay Kim Tha in the marketing of the crafts products produced in the Tailoring Workshop.  Her work involves the arrangement of the goods in the showroom, customer relations, product packaging for shipment, and making the daily bookkeeping entries for materials purchases and sales.  She also assumes a greater role in the area of quality control, which is critical to the success of this new endeavor.