Women for Education, Freedom and Textiles, trading as Weftshop, is a non-profit venture supporting Karen, Chin, Kachin, Lahu, Kayin and Mon refugee women on the Thai-Burma border and displaced women in Burma to earn a fair living wage from their handmade and traditionally loomed textile products. These women produce some of the finest textiles in South East Asia. They have fled persecution by the Burmese military regime, and handicrafts are one of the few accessible means to earn money safely.  

Buying these women’s handwoven textiles and handmade products helps support them and their families to buy nutritious food, medicine and other essential household goods so important to achieving a basic standard of living. It also helps Weftshop run product development and marketing workshops with the support of women’s groups such as the Karen Women’s Organisation, WEAVE and Borderline on the Thai-Burma border. The purpose of these workshops is to help refugee women artisans develop the skills and knowledge needed to create more marketable products for selling in Australia.

Our aim is to support as many displaced women as possible to build viable cottage industry capable of delivering sustainable income while also cultivating the continuance of traditional textile skills. In the longer term, Weftshop hopes to help refugee women establish a textile education facility.

Weftshop’s collection of handwoven and handmade products from the Thai-Burma border ranges from natural dye textiles and weaving in the form of scarves, shawls, table runners, cushions, bags and wall hangings, to children’s clothing and pieces of beautiful woven and embroidered fabric in a variety of colours.