Budd Gibbons is an American Vietnam War veteran, who now lives in Cambodia with his Cambodian wife, and runs what he describes as his personal, private aid organisation. 
He used to work for a larger charity which made and fitted artificial limbs to amputees. (There are lots of these around because of all the landmines). He observed though that many of the recipients would soon remove their prosthesis and go back to their former profession of begging. The attempt at aid had backfired, by reducing the recipient's earning power.
So now he and his wife own and operate the Santuk Silk Farm, a few kilometres out of Kompong Thom. They employ and train local women in the traditional craft of silk weaving. Like so many such traditional arts and crafts, it had died out during the Khmer Rouge years. Most of the silk is actually imported, but they have a silk farming demonstration set up, mulberry bushes, silk worms and all.
You can pick up any number of (probably imported) cheap silk scarves in Siem Reap and elsewhere, and the ones here are more expensive, but with the impeccable pedigree, the guaranteed high quality (I was assured), Budd's hospitality, and the experience of meeting the weavers themselves, I was delighted to purchase a few samples to give to Fenella, my own textile and fabric afficionado.
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