The Carpet Project

www.carpetsforcommunities.org

Something I started working on in 2003 while I was living in Thailand gained momentum and shape in 2004 when first one friend, Jay and then another, Leigh joined in. In 2005 we took on Andrea, an American volunteer looking to help out for three months or so, since then we haven't looked back. Under Andrea as the Project manager from Feb 2005 to Feb 2007 the project has grown to include 17 families (over 50 children back to school) and we now export two types of carpets to Thailand and Australia. We employ 3 full time local staff and have solicited over $100,000 AUD in in-kind and cash support for the project.

This year if all goes to plan we will increase our local staff by 5 people, hire a local Director, set up a local Board of Advisors and register as a local NGO. We will have an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) do marketing for us for 12 months, have an Australian Business Volunteer (ABV) help us plan our growth to be sustainable and smooth for 3-6 months, have an Australian Volunteer for International Development (ViDA) help manage and develop our programs for 18 months. But most importantly we will increase the number of families we work with from 18 to 50 by the end of the year and develop better programs to support them.