Wongwiang Handicrafts began life in 1978 as a small family run business making lacquer-ware items.
Mr Wongwiang was an in-patient with leprosy at the McKean Rehabilitation Centre and learnt his craft skills during his time there. He set up his own business five years after leaving the centre. He continues to support McKean by employing other ex-patients and sons and daughters of patients still resident there.
Mr Wongwiang has a deep commitment to those society has rejected. As well as ex-leprosy patients he currently employs people who have been refused work elsewhere and are in danger of being excluded from their communities.
Mr Wongwiang’s Story
Oun Wongwiang grew up in a small hut at the back of his Bangkok home. No-one came to visit him, other than to leave food outside the door. His family shunned him because he had leprosy. They were scared that they would catch it if they got too close.
Oun’s learnt of McKean Rehabilitation Centre and stayed there until he was 24. Treatment for leprosy came too late to prevent his hands and feet being disfigured by the disease, but he still learnt how to carve wood.
He now employs some 80 craftspeople across 15 villages in the Chiang Mai area. Some are based in workshops, where up to 20 people can be involved in different stages of production, while others work from home.
‘It’s great to be able to help so many people have jobs,’ he says. ‘These people depend on me for work. Sometimes in the past I have not had enough work for them and so I have had to send them away and that has been very hard. I was concerned that we would have to scale down our business a few years ago, when the market for our laquerware started drying up. But Created's small business consultant Rose Collins came to see me. She gave me new ideas like musical frogs and kitchen items. That has really helped.’
Click here to download a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the work at Wongwiang Handicrafts. (If you right-click your mouse when viewing the presentation and click "edit slides" the presentation script will appear at the bottom of the screen.)