Source: JobTube, Arianna J. Freya W.,, Josh B.
In 1994, Bitten Hogh came to China and served as an MBA lecturer at Yunnan University. Bitten and all her friends all thought that she would return to Denmark at the end of her two-year teaching career.
However, beyond everyone's expectation, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Wuding District of Kunming City in 1995, completely changed her life.
Thread Yunnan
Wuding County, more than four hours drive from Kunming, is an earthquake-stricken area. One day after the earthquake, Bitten went to Jijiezi Village, which was one of the six most seriously affected villages and was under reconstruction.
Although she was psychologically prepared, she was shocked when she saw a villager's house, where there was only a dirty pot with three sticks in the dark house, nothing else.
Obviously, she didn't expect such a poor place to exist in the world. Without any further thinking, Bitten decided to do all her best to help the locals out.
Inspired by her university studies, in 1996, Bitten set up a company, named Danyun. And then, as a first step, she donated money and shovels to villagers, however, it didnt help much. One day when visiting the villagers, she saw the splendid costumes and embroidery of these minority women and a brilliant idea came to her.
"Why didn't anyone develop this into a business? It can make big money and change their lives!", Bitten thought. It was much better to open their minds and make them self-reliant than gave them money. As a matter of fact, it was actually the best way!
Soon, a project named "Thread Yunnan" was established by Bitten.
Education Decides Production
Consequently, in October 1999, Bitten organized five women of Han, Miao, Yi and Lisu nationalities from Jijiezi village, to form a training course and became the first group of entrepreneurs.
Bitten and designers in her company, had prepared several sample designs for a trial sale, and let the five women try to embroider the pattern that they were familiar with.
After the completion, the embroidery skills of the women and their original personal creative vision were almost impeccably made all the people very excited.
However, these embroideries were too dirty to be sold as products. As the local women have no habit of washing their hands, Bitten decided to help them develop one, so she bought washbasins, towels and soap and told them to wash their hands before starting their work.
It might be a simple thing but obviously not easy. At the very beginning, the products were returned one after another for being too dirty, and it took the women a while until they had developed the new habit of hand washing.
During that time, Bitten had gradually formed a new concept, that was women participating in the production should get all-round development, which was to open their minds, and let them acquire the dignity of life.
Thus, Bitten ran evening classes and taught women for free, twice a week. She mainly taught them the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. Bitten and her team also let these women from different nationalities learn to team up, narrowing the gap between nationalities.
By 2014with the leadership of Bitten, the project had made a huge improvement, where the team grew from 5 women who couldnt even write their names, to 220 women from 12 villages, and the products grew from five dirty embroidery pieces that no one wanted, to art works that were sold to 14 countries and regions in the world.
Going International
Adhering to the idea that half of Bitten's revenue at the time of the company's establishment must be used to help poor areas in Yunnan Province, the contribution of Danyun Company to poor areas in Yunnan Province was obvious to all.
In 2002, Danyun became the first Chinese member to join the International Fair Trade Association. Surprisingly, Danyun successfully became a member of the Asia Fair Trade Forum, and made all the women who participated in the "Yunnan Color Line" project become partners in international fair trade activities in 2004.
Since then, the average net annual income of the women had increased from 189 Yuan per person in 2001 to 824 Yuan in 2005. Sales were even better in 2007, with an average annual income of more than 1,000 Yuan per woman, accounting for about half of their family's annual income. The average annual income of local households had also increased from 400 Yuan to more than 2000 Yuan, up to 3,000 Yuan. This part of the increase was mainly the women's income.
Not only that, but Danyun Company also spent 10% of its annual income on the construction of public welfare in the community, and the decision-making power of investment projects was in the hands of these village women, through voting.
With all the efforts of Bitten and her staff, the living conditions of local women had changed massively. As a result, Bitton Hogh, the only foreigner honored by the Women's Federation as a "Pacesetter of Meritorious Service".
This is why: I feel happier to give than to receive
By 2014, Bitten spent 95% of the company's profits, totaling more than 10 million Yuan, on the construction of villages.
But what's unexpected was that Bitten had ovarian cancer at the time as well.
She went to Thailand alone to have an operation, without telling anyone.
When the women in the village became aware of it, they decided to do something for her, to show their support.
And thus, each of them embroidered two pieces of art, then stitched them together to form a quilt, called Baijia Bei in Chinese (literally means a quilt made by one hundred families) so as to pray for Bitten, hoping that she would recover soon.
At the time Bitten was recuperating at her sister's home in Denmark and all her family and friends tried to persuade her to stay there. But at first sight of the quilt, she remembered the joy she had experienced with the local women, and decided to return to Kunming and her beloved life.
As of now, Bitten and her Thread Yunnan had preserved ethnic crafts, and raised living standards in these poor areas.
"I thought, it's meaningful to help others. Naturally, I could also get married and live my own life. But at the same time, many people were suffering. If no one did something or changed for them, they would live like this forever. Everyone was unique and had his/her own value. The reason why they were different was that we were born in different places and did not have equal opportunities. Like these women, they even thought they were nothing without any value. Now, they can have their own ideas, and sing and dance while laughing. Over the years, I have gained a lot of pleasure in my heart, and I feel happier to give than to receive. We were totally one big family. Bitten said.
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