The story behind the establishment of Dambar’s Silver Factory.
How it started
Mr. Dambar, permanent residents of a remote village of Nuwakot District, Bidur-3 came to Kathmandu for the first time in 1986. The next 3 years, he learned how to make silver jewelry in a silver factory nearby Swoyambhunath temple where he got an opportunity to meet Papa Jos. After his training completed, he was very hard sick suffering from stomach TBC. It was very difficult for him to survive during that time and even the medicine was not available in Nepal. Papa Jos, families and his friends helped him by providing treatment and medicine from Holland for 18 months. The medicine worked for him and was fully recovered by the help of Papa Jos and the Netherlands’s Dr. Tjerk Nap.
After recovery, Dambar started his own silver workshop within a very small room 3X3 meters, nearby Basantapur Durbar Square. He transformed to become very skillful silversmith with beautiful designs in his collections. But it was very difficult to find the silver market in Nepal so he requested Papa Jos to find Dutch Market for his products. Papa Jos introduced him to several trekking groups like Sponsor Trek by Rob Kolber, 50 Plus Travel by Wim de Vries, Madat Nepal’s trekking group by Pauli and Beautiful Story by Cathelijne Lania. It helped him a lot because every year about hundreds of tourists visited his silver factory.
The Next Step
In 1992, Dambar and his team were invited by the Netherlands consulate Kari for the Queens-Day Vrij-Markt try to sell their jewelry. There were another selling group from Madat Nepal and Papa Jos found that the quality from Dambar was far better than other selling groups, therefore, Papa Jos introduced him with Hemmy Clevis from Holland. That was his turning point because Madat Nepal started to give business to their small factory to help them grow. Madat Nepal introduced their products to the Netherlands in Fair Trade Shops for the very first time and slowly everything grew up step-by-step. Madat Nepal, Sponsor Trek, and some others provided them tools to make silver Jewelry.
By now, the factory was little grown up and required bigger space so they moved to Swoyambhunath area which is called Chamati-15. In the beginning, there were only four-person working for the silver factory, but now by the help and support and big orders, they are able to provide more works for around 20 jobless people from the remote areas of Nepal because it is hard for them to find a job in other places in Nepal. Now, it is also providing vocational training for the beginners.
The factory’s’ economic condition got affected due to the political instability in the country. They got fewer orders and visitors and could not provide work to their employees. But the boys who are working with them did not want to go back to their home. In the mean time Cathelijne Lania (She was in Nepal because of the computer project SPNCI was introduced with them already and visited their factory for several times) started herself a company called Beautiful-story and by her contact with their factory they got good orders from her just in time when the world was suffering from economic crisis. It was also very helpful for them to get more orders for the workers and also for the factory to survive. In the year 2001, the factory was registered with the name of Dambar International, now they supply their products to many countries like Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and the USA because of the highest quality, handmade jewelry, and its reasonable price. Besides this, they also have ideological clients who are living here in Nepal from different NGOs and INGOs. They visit their factory and showroom to buy their products. They are thankful to everyone who has helped and supported them to run the factory smoothly and nicely and hope that it can stay every-green.
Our Team
Here at Dambar International, we are a team of skilled and motivated professionals. In the beginning we were only four-person working for silver factory, but now by the help and support and big orders we were able to provide more works for jobless people around 20 persons of the remote area of Nepal, because it is hard for them to find job in other places in Nepal. Now, it is also providing vocational training for the beginners.
We strictly follow the rules and regulations of Fair Trades which are good for the workers.
