‘Carpets for Communities’ (CfC) is a not-for-profit social enterprise which focuses on developing sustainable solutions to ending poverty. To do this, our aim is to return children at risk of child labour and human trafficking to school. The way in which we do this is by empowering mothers of impoverished families to earn a stable and fair income in the Poipet Commune of Cambodia, on the Thailand border. CfC does this by teaching the mothers to produce one-of-a-kind, hand-hooked carpets. CfC then resells these carpets into Australia and across the world with the support of a large volunteer base. The income the mothers earn from producing these carpets enable their children to return to school. This provides an immediate intervention solution by allowing the children to be back in school within 48 hours of a mother entering the program. Without this intervention, the children are trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Once they have worked in the carpet production process, that has increased their family’s welfare and developed their capabilities to achieve more, we support them in longer term solutions by supporting them develop their own businesses’. These businesses range from fruit selling, to sewing. We support them identify opportunities, develop business plans and provide them with capital through micro-finance methods.