A top UN official has lauded the Ministry of Interior for promoting sustainable villages and their use of "fashion sustainability" during a visit to Lop Buri's Muang district on Sunday.
Alisjahbana: Was impressd
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap), and other UN representatives visited Village 5 and Wat Yannasean of tambon Kong Tanu in the district.
The UN team was welcomed by Suttipong Juljarern, permanent secretary for interior and his wife Wandee Khunchornyakong Juljarern, president of the Ladies Association of the Ministry of Interior, together with local officials.
Demonstrations during the visit highlighted four weaving communities -- Mee Dee Natab group from Songkhla, Ta Kien Pom group from Lamphun, Donkoi Sustainability Village from Sakon Nakhon and Nern Kham group from Chai Nat.
Ms Alisjahbana said the communities are evidence of Thailand's ongoing commitment to sustainability under the initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya.
The Mee Dee Natab group from the South included young batik makers from the non-formal education system who won second runner-up in last year's National Textile Competition by applying the princess's pattern to batik design.
The northern Ta Kien Pom community, which specialises in cotton weaving, revived the community's use of age-old natural blue dye.
From the Northeast, the Donkoi Sustainability Village -- established under the princess's initiative -- has produced textiles and clothing, increasing the villager's monthly income from 700 baht to nearly 20,000 baht.
From the Central Plains, entrepreneurs from Chai Nat have applied colour schemes from the princess's Trend Book of Thai Textiles to bring their ancestral weaving heritage up-to-date using natural colours in dyeing silk yarn.
"I have been monitoring the movement in Thailand for some time. This is what we at the UN call 'fashion sustainability' in which the princess has introduced to the Thai people, using her expertise and experience in fashion design, ideas leading to the advancement in sustainable development and the increase of personal income of the villagers," Ms Alisjahbana said.