Khun Yoong is a small, sweet-faced Burmese woman who lives in a village near Mae Sai called Padang. She is HIV-positive. Because the symptoms of the disease leave her unable to continue construction and field labor, she ekes out a living through her extraordinary talent for sequin and beadwork. Before being introduced to Izara Arts, she was being paid a mere 80 to 130 baht apiece – between two and four U.S. dollars – for intricately beaded dresses that took her four or five days to complete.

Kuhn Yoong moved from Burma to Thailand fifteen years ago with her mother, two small daughters, and Thai husband. After a divorce she relocated to Bangkok, where she worked as a masseuse and met her second husband, who helped support the family temporarily but abruptly left the country and cut off contact. Since then, Kuhn Yoong has been drifting from job to job, often working strenuous, menial labor for long hours. She was forced to sell her sewing machine five years ago in order to afford the doctor who informed her of her HIV diagnosis.

Happily, neither of her children is infected. Her younger daughter lives with her sister in a neighboring village, and her older daughter lives with her in Padang, where she attends the local high school and hopes to find a scholarship so she can continue her education after Grade 9.