Last weekend the International School of Kuala Lumpur hosted its annual “International Festival,” a celebration of the school’s diverse student populations. All students gathered by nationality, prepared a booth and shared an aspect of their culture (I even met a family from Namibia). Salaam Wanita was given a table in the charity area, right next to the Burmese refugee centre group.

The group is trying to achieve something similar: Turning refugees into micro-entrepreneurs of sorts. The problem, according to their coordinator, is that they’ve yet to find a product innovative enough to make it (such as Salaam Wanita’s eco-baskets).

The baskets were a hit with the international community. My grandmother, visiting from Jakarta, was happy to help me out as she could relate to Salaam Wanita members. A widowed mother, she started a tailoring business out of her home to support her eight children, her parents and her husband’s parents.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve also had the opportunity to meet two of Salaam Wanita’s weavers. Rita from Ipoh has emerged as a leader—coordinating orders, production and delivery on behalf of three other weavers. Having one coordinator for a team of weavers would be an ideal organizational system and save eHomemakers on administration costs.

From what I’ve learned here, however, I believe that this has to be a natural process, as the weavers have to build a solid bond and trust between themselves—a factor that we can’t control and that is hard to facilitate when each weaver is working in separate physical locations. A factor, that if the women were ICT enabled, could be lessened (how many friends have you made online)?