The increasing popularity of Thai Karen hill tribe silver has motivated many suppliers of jewelry making products to include hill tribe silver in their product line on a global scale, therefore increasing supply to meet demand. Asia Charisma is a fair trade organization which work closely with Karen artisans and have since been a first eye witness to many changes in the livelihood of the Karen people, some for the better and many changes are inevitable due to constant demand for hill tribe silver. When we first came upon the Karen hill tribes, there were lack of work and many families still living in teak wood homes on stilts passed on from several generations. In only a few years time, many of these homes have been turned into small factories with elderly and under age workers, often a daughter or son that have been taken away from school to work on filling orders. We did not foresee this day, however due to such demand for hand made hill tribe silver, desire for profit has taken a toll on the Karen people. As local distributors, wholesalers and shops bathe in their success, the true suppliers, dumbfounded by how their work can take on such popularity, are cornered into what we now refer to as "sweat shop" work force. Asia Charisma has played a big part in this change and we would like to apologize to all of our friends and clients that have cared enough to stick with us from the very beginning-- We want to do better and you can help. As you already know, Asia Charisma operates solely as an online supplier of hill tribe silver product and do not operate from a showroom like many larger wholesalers and distributors in the area. We are relatively small in comparison to many other companies with deeper pocket however we remain faithful to our goal, our clients and most importantly our Karen friends. We set out on this path with a goal to help create a better life for Karen families and that goal remains

Images of Karen artisans:

Click on an image thumbnails to review enlightening images of recently photographed Karen hill tribe artisans at work. All images are taken in Huay Thom Village, located in Lamphun disrict of northern Thailand. Enjoy more images at the bottom of this page.

Due to popular demand for hill tribe silver and for lower prices, Asia Charisma has embarked on organizing a Yahoo! group for the purpose of keeping clients satisfied with low price and quick delivery which will be referred to as The Asia Charisma Group. For several years, Asia Charisma has worked closely with some large Yahoo! jewelry making and bulk buy groups where we have very much enjoyed learning and working with some of the best buy hosts and hostesses on the web. Today, we are confident that The Asia Charisma Group can bring the same superior service and knowledgeable information to all of our clients willing to work with us in expanding the Group and on each buy held each month (date shown on top of this page). The Asia Charisma Group is open for membership to everyone however it is designed for people with passion to help others and is interested in the Karen hill tribe as well as hill tribe silver. Discussions can be held through out the Group openly so long as members remain sincere and topics remain within the objectives of Asia Charisma Group

The Asia Charisma Group Objectives:
1. Continue improving living standard of poor hill tribe working family artisans by creating continuous work and job opportunities without utilizing elderly or under age workers.

2. Create an online environment where you, the client can be more involved in the cause and effect of the changes taken place in Lamphun, Thailand.

3. Supply our products at wholesale price to clients that are not able to meet our wholesale minimum on their own but are willing to order with the group when buys are available each month.

4. Expedite delivery of products shipped from Thailand, cutting delivery time from 14+ days to less than 10 days.

5. Making a difference in lives of Karen artisans make us happy and we would like our clients to share the moments with us. The Asia Charisma Group will keep a running BLOG of current events and future planning to keep our clients in the loop, in turn leaving an electronic footprint of our projects.

Who and How to Join:
Who can join? Anyone with interest to help and would like to order hill tribe silver at the lowest price available at the time of each buy and reside in The United States or Canada. For more information on current price structures, please review our PRICING page. You do not necessarily need to be a member of The Asia Charisma Group at Yahoo! to be included with each group buy. Send order forms or a list of items to GroupOrders @ asia-charisma.net (without spaces) for inclusion to each order. Those interested in membership with The Asia Charisma Group at Yahoo! will first need to become a Yahoo! member which is all free of charge. Click the JOIN The Asia Charisma Group and follow the steps provided by Yahoo! to complete the membership procedure. All membership will be screened by the Asia Charisma team to weed out possible spammers or sabotage. Once you are a member, all the link and folders online are there for your use, including order forms, buy rules, calendar as well as a link to POST comments, questions or answers to the group. Asia Charisma will remain the group moderator and will closely monitor all group activities-- please keep emails friendly and to the point.

(CLICK HERE to JOIN The Asia Charisma Group at Yahoo!)

Using our online order form is the most convenient method of submitting an order to us. Our order forms provided in the group folder can also be found in our WHOLESALE page. If you are familiar with Windows Office Excel program, please download the excel spreadsheet to save onto your computer hard drive to fill in at your convenience. Make sure to save a copy of the completed order form to your computer before submitting to us by email attachment. If Excel is unfamiliar to you, we are more than happy to accept a list of items that clearly specifies item number and quantity so that we are able to process without delay. The most universal file format for any computer on any operating systems is a TEXT format which can be used to make a simple list. Once we have received your order, our processing team will make sure to keep you updated every step of processing. In most cases, an order invoice will be made available online for review and payment which will be due before the end date. Any unpaid order will not be processed, other than in situations which arrangements have been made with our team and both parties are in total agreement. Rest assured, it is a top priority for us to process and ship the group order as soon as possible, therefore we will not delay processing or shipment of each buy for any reason.

PROCESSING PROCEDURES:
1. Download our most current wholesale order form from the Group's "FILE" section or from Asia Charisma's WHOLESALE page and save the downloaded file to your computer for your record. Fill in the wholesale order form accordingly and make sure to SAVE the completed version to your computer before emailing it to us for inclusion with the monthly buy.

2. Once we have received your order, our processing team will review and create a personalized web page for you where we will upload each order invoice and confirmed shipping invoice for you to review and complete payment. Clients that have made online orders through us will find that this step is exactly the same procedure as the check out process through our shopping cart system.

3. We will notify each participant once an order invoice has been uploaded to your personalized web page, at which time all participants will be required to complete payment for their order and provide us with a confirmed delivery address. Please make sure that you will be there to receive the package 7 to 10 days after the closing dateline.

4. We will consider payment as confirmation and agreement to process your order at the price represented by the order invoice. Each participant's order will be processed independently. Once items have been counted and weighed, a confirmed "shipping invoice" will once again be made available online for each participant to review. A confirmed shipping invoice will reveal detailed information regarding your order such as out-of-stock items, total weight being shipped and remaining balances for reimbursement, if any at all.

5. In case of any out-of-stock or shortages that shows a balance in which you are entitled to a refund, our team will make sure to reimburse you for the remaining balance by the same method used to complete payment to us. PayPal users can expect reimbursement by PayPal from our account and credit card users can expect reimbursement to their credit card.

6. The estimated processing time is 48 to 72 hours from the closing dateline. Once an order has been finalized and balance is "ZERO", each participant's orders will be individually packaged and labeled accordingly, at which time that individual package will be included in the larger box containing everyone's individualized packages. At this point, we are ready to ship to our Seattle office.

7. SHIPMENT from Chiang Mai, Thailand will be submitted via UPS or Federal Express with full insurance coverage. Generally, UPS or FedEx shipments are very quick to make delivery, which we will estimate 4 days delivery time to Seattle.

8. Once the large package is delivered to us in Seattle, our team will take out each participant's packages and mail them out to their respectable owners.

9. Packages will be shipped from Seattle by Priority mail. Please make sure to provide us with a delivery address where someone will be there to receive the package in 7 to 10 days after the closing date.

The Asia Charisma Group Buy Rules:
1. Price is fixed for every buy-- the group buy is set up to achieve small but rather meaning goals which we truly appreciate everyone's interest, however there will be NO price negotiations for any individuals. Prices will be set up according to Asia Charisma's pricing standard that is updated daily and can be found on the PRICING page.

2. There are NO minimum order requirements for any particular items or total weight. You may order 1 piece of any product you require. However, there will be a small processing and shipping fee for individual participants which may vary for each order, depending on total weight. Considering the small profit margin, we will require that each participant cover packaging and shipping charges from Seattle. For reference, you may also find updated pricing on the USPS web site. Rest assured we will bill you for the exact quote provided to us by the USPS online shipping calculator.

3. All participants will be required to complete payment as a confirmation for each order before our team begins the processing procedure. After which, the Asia Charisma team will take full responsibility to process and ship your order in the utmost professional manner-- delivery of your order is GUARANTEED. Please make sure to provide us with a complete delivery address to avoid any delay

4. The Group buy will be available once a month and all orders are require to be submitted to us by the closing dateline and payment for all orders paid within 36 hours after the closing dateline. We will automatically cancel unpaid orders. Please read the processing procedure for detailed information on how to submit an order.

5. No Cancellation after payment-- The Asia Charisma team are  true believers of fair trade and believe that all clients and group members share the same principal, therefore, after payment of each order has been confirmed, we will not accept any cancellations of any orders. Please understand that all of our products consume much time and energy to create and that to process each order using our precise measuring methods also take much time. To cancel any orders after processing begins would only create an unmotivated working environment.

6. Members are not obligated to commit to any buys. The Asia Charisma Group is organized to fulfill the wishes for the many clients that are not able to meet our minimum wholesale purchase requirements on their own. Although any person may join the Asia Charisma Group, once a member, you are not obligated to make any purchase with the buy at any time.

7. All members are entitled to their privacy. Any information, including shipping address, email and payment information will be stored securely with Asia Charisma's or Yahoo! servers.

Images of Karen artisans:

Click on an image thumbnails to review enlightening images of recently photographed Karen hill tribe artisans at work. All images are taken in Huay Thom Village, located in Lamphun disrict of northern Thailand.