(B) Yangon with special visits to socially responsible organizations After breakfast at your hotel, begin the day’s sightseeing at the National Museum and Bogyoke Aung San Market, a great shopping location for Myanmar art, handicrafts, lacquerware, and jewelry. Then visit non-profit organizations Hla Day and Pomelo, both of whom have outlets in downtown Yangon. More than just providing a sustainable market place in which local producers can sell their products, these businesses also offer skills training and creative design input. At Hla Day you may note a jump in prices, but please remember that any profit Hla Day makes is constantly reinvested back into their suppliers, many of whom are struggling to overcome disability, exclusion and poverty. Some of our favorite items on sale here are the paper mache Myanmar dinosaurs, Turquoise Mountain jewelry (an NGO founded by the Prince of Wales), the nativity set handcrafted by a Buddhist potter, and multi-colored neckties made using a range of ethnic longyi (sarong) materials. Next, we’ll visit Pomelo, a Fair-Trade marketplace like Hla Day, stocked with the products of the same and some different suppliers. Keep an eye out for the reclaimed teak candle holders crafted by former street children trained in traditional carpentry and the handmade soap fashioned and scented by refugee women in Kachin State. From Pomelo, we’ll then walk or drive a couple of blocks to the Yuwaddy Centre. Set up by the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), this small social business provides training and employment for underprivileged women in the post conflict areas of Thandaunggyi in Karen State. The products the ladies in question craft can be found inside the small shop; these range from pots of honey, freshly ground coffee, fashionable drawstring bags and hand-stitched bracelets. Schedule permitting, during your time here, we’ll also try to arrange a meeting with one of the ladies in charge if you’d like to ask questions about the business and learn more about where any profit goes. Before leaving Bogalay Zay Street, we’d recommend taking a quick look inside the YWCA building next door. Well over a century old, it is still today one of Myanmar’s leading organizations to help advance the development of women and disadvantaged in society. Projects throughout the country include child labor protection, home care for senior people, and mobile clinics for AIDS patients. But Yangon YWCA is perhaps best known for its excellent vocational training courses that provide fundamental skills for women to progress in the workplace such as computer, sewing, flower arrangement and business administration. Leaving downtown Yangon behind, we’ll then drive 30 minutes north to Flame Tree Weaving, our final stop of the day. Founded by Sabrina, a bubbly, bright and extremely ambitious entrepreneur, this socially responsible business teaches unemployed and disadvantaged women (of all ages) the art of sewing.Between them, the close-knit team has designed and tailored a successful line of traditional cushions, purses, placemats, jewelry, bags and children’s clothing. Flame Tree works exclusively with Pomelo, so there’s a good chance you will be familiar with most of the stock already. Overnight in Yangon.
