Unlike many women in her village, MaeTa comes from a remote village in the Southern part of Laos.

• She met her husband in 1980 at a Buddhist festival and is happily married with five children.
• When she's not weaving, MaeTa is working in the rice fields, foraging for food in the forest (berries, frogs, etc.), or taking care of the family's home.
• MaeTa learned to weave from her mother at a very young age, and has taught her daughters this art form. For her family and her, weaving is not only a way to make money, but also a way to connect to their heritage.

It's sometimes difficult for women like MaeTa, who live on relatively meager means, to dream. At GIANNA, we encourage our artisans to think big! For MaeTa, this means:

• Dreaming about a better house that can comfortably house her husband and their five children.
• She'd love to have a car one day so that they're able to travel to the market more easily than piling onto the family motorbike.
• MaeTa would also like to eventually buy more land for rice farming. The family would then have enough for their own consumption, plus extra to sell at the market.

We make a difference in MaeTa's life by giving her the economic opportunity to work from her home and earn a fair trade wage.

• Aside from the economic opportunity, MaeTa has an educational opportunity to learn new weaving techniques, natural dyeing techniques, and basic business skills, like creating a monthly budget and calculating a fair trade wage.
• MaeTa feels that weaving allows her to connect with her culture and pass the skill to her daughters.