The silk industry offers many women with many different skill levels the opportunity to work and support their families. Two ultra-poor families per km share in caring for the small roadside mulberry saplings, watering, nurturing and protecting them as they grow. The tender leaves are picked and sold to groups of women who raise the silk worms on large, round bamboo trays attached to the walls of their huts. After 36 days of feeding and nurturing, the silk worms spin a cocoon and completely cover themselves in approximately one mile of filament. The next group of workers extract the silk threads from the cocoons. These threads are then processed into silk yarn.

Before the yarn can be used, it undergoes several treatments; bleaching, washing and dyeing. In its raw state, the silk is hard due to the sericin, a resinous, amorphous substance that bonds the two gossamer filaments together, and therefore has to be removed. A single filament of the silk yarn is not strong enough to be woven on its own so it is twisted in order to give it strength. Women dye it with vegetable dyes, separate the threads and then twist two or more threads together into various plies to produce luxury fabrics. A four-ply silk is heavier and more luxurious than a two-ply and so on.


Donation Needed:

Training/employment in silk industry per person                        $210