Atlas - The People Behind the Pearl

Atlas is a pearl company worthy of great admiration. I will let Atlas tell their own story through this press release and the linked video, which is a must-see.

At the heart of Atlas Pearls’ success are the people of our Company, who work passionately and harmoniously with nature to produce some of the world’s finest South Sea pearls. Atlas is a world leader in the cultivation of white and silver South Sea pearls from the Pinctada maxima. Atlas consistently strives to enhance efficiency and productivity of the Company’s core business, pearl farming.

Atlas South Sea pearls are harvested from five pearl farms throughout the South Seas, extending throughout the Indonesian archipelago to West Papua, with one of our larger farms in Indonesia’s favourite holiday location of Bali.

It is here, at our North Bali pearl farm, you will find that Atlas pearls has a very special and unique connection to women. Atlas employs and shares a special relationship with the women who harvest the pearls. The job of a pearl technician is one requiring a great deal of delicacy and gentle techniques. For this reason, 100 percent of Atlas pearls technicians are women, a unique fact in what is traditionally a male dominated industry.
Atlas Pearls and Perfumes consciously seeks to make a practical contribution to local communities and is a major employer in some of South East Asia’s most remote regions.

Over 80% of pearl farm staff are sourced from the surrounding villages.
The employment opportunities made available to women by the company has led to a noticeable shift from the dominant patriarchal family structure that prevails in many parts of Indonesia to a family dynamic where income goes into education and general family wellbeing before anything else.

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Long time Atlas employee and Balinese local Ni Nyoman Komang Suartini is a Senior Pearl Technician and began working at the company in 2002. After considerable and intensive training, Komang is considered a Master of her art and a true specialist in her field.

Importantly, Komang supports her husband and son. (Please watch the video now.)


Translated from Indonesian, Komang explains how she first started working at Atlas:
“ I was 22 years old … in Bali I married. I only had very ordinary work, I did other people’s house work: washing and ironing with my Aunt because work was so difficult to find.
“Atlas first opened a joint venture and the first location was in the village of Banyupoh, my village.

“In 2004 I started to study as a technician and I felt both happy and frightened because as a pearl technicians you can say that the company’s future rests in our hands because it is the technicians who seed for pearls because we do the pearl seeding there is a sense of doubt I wonder is it really possible for me to be successful? Can I create a beautiful pearl that we wish for in our company? The point is I want to be someone the company is proud of. That is my only wish regarding my work with pearls.

“ My feeling is one of joy, of pride. Truthfully I am so happy because as I understand it creating a pearl, as told and heard by me long before I knew that pearls even existed here only the Japanese could do this and I was told no-one else was allowed the knowledge of how to seed the pearl, or even look at a pearl and never hold a pearl.
“I feel that this company is my second home. I feel very proud because I’m a part of creating pearls.”

Atlas’ mission is to engender a self-belief, a corporate belief and a community belief in its pearling ventures.
“Atlas is very proud of the role we are playing in facilitating women’s empowerment in the remote regions of Indonesia and see every pearl as a reflection of the dedication of the pearl farmers and nature’s generosity, ” says Pierre Fallourd, CEO for Atlas Pearls.

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There is a continuous CSR program for Atlas but a few initiatives established to date include:
• Atlas is proud to be a company that actively facilitates women’s empowerment in the remote regions of Indonesia.
• The employment opportunities made available to women has led to a noticeable shift from the dominant patriarchal family structure that prevails in many parts of Indonesia to a family dynamic where income goes into education and family wellbeing before anything else.
• Building and refurbishing schools in Bali and Papua.
• Establishing scholarship programmes for under-privileged children.
• Collaborating with neighbouring companies to build a new home for the Benih Kasih children.
• Offering transport to the remote islands of Raja Ampat from the Sorong mainland.
• Health services including access to a fully equipped medical clinic in Alyui Bay.
• Technology knowledge transfer and training programmes for Indonesian Nationals particularly in hatchery and pearl seeding.
• The development of a recycling venture with half the proceeds going to a staff loan facility.

See more at http://www.atlaspearlsandperfumes.com.au/

Blaire Beavers
Managing Editor
Pearl Guide News
 
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