We here at Ganesh Himal Trading have been blessed to be featured in Fig Tree, a newspaper that features local non-profit and faith based communities. They wrote three features involving Ganesh Himal Trading, and fair trade, from our launch of ” The Power of 5 Campaign” to the upcoming Jubilee sale that features fair trade products from around the world including items from Ganesh Himal.
Check out the articles below:
Here is an excerpt from the article about the launch of our Power of Five Campaign:
Ganesh Himal Trading launches scholarship project to support education opportunities for girls in Nepal
As part of the annual Fair Trade Festival and inspired by PBS showing “Half the Sky” about the desire for girls and women to be educated, Ganesh Himal will launch “The Power of Five” or raise funds for the Girl Child Education Fund of the Association for Craft Producers (ACP) in Nepal to provide scholarships so girls can attend school.
The ACP works with marginalized women to help them gain skills, live lives of dignity, gain control of their earnings and provide education for their daughters.
Many girls have been able to stay in school because of these scholarships, but, in February 2012, Ric and I met with two girls who had finished their three years of scholarships and were unable to continue because their father lost his income and no scholarship money was available, she said.
Ganesh Himal seeks to reach 900 people to raise $4,500 to fund scholarships for more than 100 children of fair trade producers at ACP in Kathmandu, Nepal.
They have created and will be selling packets of bookmarks that tell the story. When participants share the bookmarks, they raise awareness about the importance of educating girl children, raise money for scholarships and tell about the effects of fair trade…
Here is an excerpt from the article featuring Denise Atwood, co-owner of Ganesh Himal Trading and Kim Harmson, owner of Kizuri, a fair trade store located in Spokane:
Two women who have been friends for more than 25 years represent two parts of the global chain of fair trade from the earth to producers, wholesalers, retailers to consumers and back to the earth.
Denise Attwood, co-owner of Ganesh Himal Trading, is a wholesaler who has built a business with $1.5 million yearly in fair trade retail sales. She business connects cottage industries and development projects for Tibetan refugees and women in Nepal with 250 retailers around the United States.
Kim Harmson, owner of Kizuri, a fair trade retail outlet in the Community Building at 35 W. Main has the shop that had roots in the nonprofit Global Folk Art and now sells items from 40 cultures. Kizuri has grown from a business of $155,000 in 2008 to $253,778 in 2011. This growth has allowed the store to work with more artisan groups, double its inventory, hire part-time employees and make more than $21,000 in donations to nonprofits both locally and globally.
Both experienced growth through the economic downturn. They operate outside the traditional business model.
At a recent Spokane City Forum at First Presbyterian Church, they invited people to become consumers of fair trade products. Purchases cycle back through the retail-wholesale chain to producers whose lives and communities improve as they educate their children, gain access to medical care and provide food, shelter and clothing for their families.
Beyond that, Denise and Kim said producers catch an entrepreneurial spirit and use savings to invite others, usually women, to earn a living by producing traditional and nontraditional products.
Denise and Kim see fair trade as a win-win strategy to create micro-enterprise locally and abroad.
Interested in cultures and people, Denise and her husband Ric Conner traveled in Nepal after earning degrees in environmental studies 28 years ago. They bought sweaters from Tibetan refugees. After a month of trekking, they told the refugees how much they liked the sweaters.
The refugees, who had no access to assistance, asked them to help develop a market so they could earn enough money to send their children to school. “We are not business people,” they told the refugees, but they decided to spend $400 to buy sweaters and ship them home. When they returned, Denise’s parents suggested they rent the Civic Theater and tell their story. They did, and the sweaters sold out…
Here is an excerpt from the article featuring a women who will be selling products from their village in Kashmir, India in the upcoming Jubilee fair trade goods sale happening in Spokane:
By Mary Stamp
After settling in Spokane 40 years ago, Naseem and Nissar Shah, who grew up in the village of Srinagar in Kashmir, India, found when they returned home in the 1970s that family, friends and other people in their village struggled because of poverty and war.
At first the Shahs brought back traditional crafts lacquered papier-mach boxes, animals, eggs, candleholders, coasters, knitted purses and woven wool rugs by local artisans as gifts for their friends in the United States.For the last three years, they have been among the fair-trade vendors who sell hand-made products through the Jubilee International Marketplace at First Presbyterian Church in Spokane.
Tourism had been a strong market in Kashmir, allowing artisans to make a modest living. Decades of war, however, led to a decline in tourism and living conditions. India and Pakistan still fight over the state of Kashmir.
“I remember that Kashmir was a paradise on earth with the Himalayan Mountains, lakes and four seasons, she said.
In the mid 1990s, they began buying crafts to help families in nearby villages. They paid in advance, because the artisans needed the money.
“It’s the main livelihood for four families, she said.
Along with their jobs, the Shahs then decided to start a small business and sell the crafts at craft shows in Spokane on weekends.
Before they learned about fair trade, the Shahs sold items at local fall and Christmas season craft shows and at the Fall Folk Festival in November. Eventually, they also began to sell leather purses and jewelry they made with beads from India.
For 14 years, Naseem has worked for Head Start, helping children and low-income families in Spokane. Nissar graduated from Gonzaga University in engineering and works in that field.
Naseem’s father, who had come to the United States in the 1950s, taught civil engineering at Gonzaga. Naseem met Nissar when he came from the same area of Kashmir to study engineering.
Naseem studied biology and chemistry, graduating from Gonzaga University in 1978. She worked as a medical technician before raising her family. Later she took classes at Spokane Falls Community College in early childhood education.
Nasreen, the youngest of their three daughters, was nine when she first visited relatives in Kashmir. She helps her parents with the Jubilee sale.
Now, she said, the original art form is on the decline as younger people do not carry on the traditions. So the Shahs have fewer items, and the Jubilee sale fits their inventory.
Once a year Ganesh Himal Trading has a chance to sell their products to their local community in Spokane, Washington. A 28 year old tradition, this event brings people from all over the Inland Empire, and is a celebration of friendship, community and fair trade. Please see below for more information.
Sita Gurung, Denise Attwood, Ric Conner (Ganesh Himal Trading)
The Story of the Baseri Health Clinic, Baseri Nepal
How does a small, locally owned, grassroots health clinic in Nepal get a start! Here’s the story of how the clinic in Baseri Nepal did!
Denise and Ric (of Ganesh Himal Trading) met Sita Gurung in 1984 while they were trekking through her remote village of Baseri, Nepal. She was 14 at the time! Sita was an enthusiastic girl in the village who walked long hours to get an education. They became lifelong friends. Over time all of them dreamed together of someday building a clinic in Sita’s village where there had never been any healthcare before. In 2006 Sita’s mother, Ama Gurung and Denise’s good friend Dr. Marilyn Ream both passed away. Their lives and memory gave Sita and Denise the inspiration to pursue that dream. 24 years after their initial meeting in Baseri they decided it was time to build a clinic!
In the fall of 2007 Sita went back to her village of Baseri in the mountainous region of NW Nepal and met with the village leaders. She asked them if they were interested in helping to create a clinic. The villagers were thrilled with the prospect of having their first health clinic ever! They formed their own non-profit, donated community land for the clinic and agreed to donate time and labor to help build it. The team was forming!
In the spring of 2008 Sita and Denise held the first fundraiser in Spokane and raised the money to start the construction. Carol Schillios, of the Fabric of Life Foundation, who works with women in Mali met with Sita and Denise, discussed the project and lovingly agreed to have the Fabric of Life Foundation became the home of the Baseri Clinic funds!
In the meantime, the villagers chose a site that they felt was accessible to everyone in the surrounding area and started building in the fall of 2008. They agreed that they wanted this clinic to be available to anyone who needed help and that they would not turn anyone away. They designed a 4 room, one story building in the traditional architecture of the village and located a local water source. Trees were cut from their local community forest and milled by hand. Slate for the roof was cut from a nearby quarry (all by hand). By the spring of 2009 they were able to construct the main shell of the structure.
Over the summer of 2009 the villagers were busy planting and harvesting their local crops of millet, barley, corn and rice. Sita and I were busy planning out the future staffing of the clinic as well as where to source electricity (the village of Baseri has none). Sita and I dreamed of finding a local woman to staff the clinic. We wanted to find a woman who could be a mentor to young girls in the area. Remarkably, just as we were investigating the staffing, a Spokane family approached Denise about helping the clinic. They wanted to help with finding qualified permanent medical staff. Sita knew of a young woman from Baseri who had dreamed of being a nurse but couldn’t afford the tuition. The Spokane family jumped at the chance to fund her training. So, Nisha Gurung, a Baseri village girl, applied for and was one of 4 rural Nepali’s accepted to the field nursing program at the National Medical College in Birgunj, Nepal. She started the demanding 3 year program in the fall of 2009 and Sita visited her at the college soon after. Nisha has been a star student and will be finished with her program this fall, 2012. When Nisha finishes she will be qualified to do minor surgery, maternal and infant health care and primary medicine and at that time she will become the lead medical personnel for the clinic. She is thrilled since this has been her life long goal and she never dreamed she would have the money to complete the schooling!
While Nisha has been in college, a local man, who was a medic in the Nepal Army and worked for 10 years in the Army hospital in Kathmandu, has filled the position of medical personnel for the clinic. In 2009 he come to Kathmandu to meet with Sita’s friend Dr. Holly Murphy, an Infectious Disease Specialist, who is working in CIWEC Canadian clinic in Kathmandu. Holly worked with him to make lists of the supplies of medicines necessary for the village clinic and to make sure that everything needed would be ready for the clinic opening.
Also in the summer of 2009, Sita was busy with a fundraiser in Seattle that raised money specifically for the solar, toilet and water systems for the clinic. The fundraiser was sponsored by the Living Earth Institute in Seattle http://living-earth.org/ and raised almost $5,000 for the clinic. There was a fantastic program of traditional singing and dancing by Sita and others and many members of the Nepal Seattle Society came to support the clinic. Sita, contributes the proceeds from her traditional Nepali music CDS to the clinic project. With this money we were able to fund a solar panel, five small tube lights (the first light in Baseri!), a battery, the design and installation of a toilet system, a 5000 liter water tank and piping and have them installed in the clinic.
The building was completed in the winter of 2010 and then a grand opening ceremony was scheduled for February. Sita, Denise, Ric and Cameron were all able to make their way to Baseri for the grand opening. Two other Nepali’s, Harimaya Gurung and Dhane Gurung, who have been instrumental in the construction of the clinic were also able to attend. The grand opening ceremony was held on February 26, 2010 with all of the villagers turning out and much music and fanfare and a ribbon cutting ceremony!
On February 28 the first 35 people came to receive care! By Sept 29, 2010 1600 patients (an average of 10 people a day) had been seen at the clinic for everything from maternal health care issues to burns, breaks and intestinal disorders. As of Feb 2011 over 3600 had been served! They have been able to save 3 peoples lives, one pregnant mother and child and one very dehydrated young boy! The clinic is supplied with basic lab testing facilities for urine and blood tests an otoscope for ear infections, stethoscopes, a blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and saline iv drip system.
News travels fast in the remote areas of Nepal and now people living in even more remote areas than Baseri have heard of the clinic and are coming seeking primary care treatment. It is obvious from the popularity of the clinic that we will need to increase the staffing so in the spring of 2012 we hired a young woman of Baseri as a part time assistant to help with record keeping. Our next steps will be to explore funding for 2 full time medical staff people. The clinic charges cost for medicine and a small fee for those who can afford it and a bank account has been opened in a nearby village. Their goal is to be able to replenish their medical supplies with the funds that they receive. The villagers of Baseri take part in the care and upkeep of the facilities. Our organization has agreed to pay for the staffing.
In the summer of 2011, Greg Starling, a board member of the The Nepalese Women’s Health Foundation contacted Denise about their interest in helping to fund women’s health care at the clinic. Sita met with their board member Dr. Devi Dawady, and they agreed to fund specific women’s health care issues at the clinic for $1000 for 3 years. With the first $1000 granted we have been able to create 1) an emergency fund for pregnant women who may need emergency transport to Kathmandu, 2) purchase prenatal vitamins that are made available to all pregnant women who come to the clinic free of charge and 3) begin to explore hiring a teacher for an adult women’s literacy program at the clinic.
At present, in the summer of 2012, the clinic is serving on average 10-15 people per day. Last February Sita went to the clinic twice and held meetings with the village board, the medic and the village people in an effort to determine how to make the clinic more effective and self-sustaining. Great progress was made and the village board is taking on more responsibilities. Records are being kept of the illnesses treated and medicines distributed, vitamins are being distributed to women who are pregnant and much more.
Sita has been working hard to put a strong foundation in place by talking with the village committee members and organizing a plan for the future and her hard work is paying off! The clinic is truly growing from the ground up! In September of 2012 when Nisha graduates from nursing school Sita has arranged for her to attend a 3 month training in intensive care at the Dhulikhel teaching hospital in Kathmandu. When she is finished she will return to Baseri and become their lead caregiver! The first woman health care provider in the first clinic in Baseri! A dream come true!
Nisha has decided that she would like to live at the clinic so our next phase for fundraising is to raise $2500 to build a 4 room addition to the clinic. Two rooms for Nisha and two rooms that we can use for guest physicians, health care educators and perhaps women’s literacy or economic development groups in the future. This project will hopefully be completed this fall.
On this journey we have had incredible help from many different people. We have one 5 year old who raised over $70 selling bracelets he made and 10 year old twins who asked people to donate to the clinic for their birthday present. A 90+ year old man, Mr. Biele, who is a friend of Sita’s has been a great supporter and has donated more than $10,000. There are dozens of others who have given generously to this dream. This clinic is dedicated to the memory of two amazing women who have held the light aloft for many of us to follow in their service and love of humankind. Aama Gurung, Sita’s mother, was a kind and powerful woman who is from the village of Baseri and led by example. She gave Sita the opportunity to become the first female to have a high school education in the area. Aama Gurung instilled great faith and humanity in all she encountered. Dr. Marilyn Ream, a physician in Spokane who worked in many rural clinics throughout the world was bursting at the seams with compassion and love. Both were amazing healers in their own way and a huge inspiration to others.
Aama and Marilyn inspired this dream and so many of our friends have worked to make it come true! Thanks to everyone who has helped. We’ll keep you posted along the way!
To make a donation by check, please make the check payable to “The Fabric of Life Foundation” and send to the address below. Please write Nepal/Besari clinic on the memo line.
This past week I got to do one of my favorite rituals of the year and I was reminded yet again of how wonderful it is to give. Every year for as long as I can remember we at Ganesh Himal Trading have given our sweaters and knitwear to Women’s Hearth here in Spokane. Women’s Hearth is this amazingly warm and welcoming day center in the city core where women can seek shelter from the streets, connect with services, take a shower, learn something new, express themselves through the arts or connect via the computer lab. Founded in 1991 The Women’s Hearth is a safe haven for any women seeking the safety and community of other women in a non-judgmental atmosphere and each day the doors open to welcome more than 100 homeless and low-income women. Women’s Hearth is a part of a larger organization here in Spokane called Transitions. Transitions helps women in need: those in crisis, at risk children, low income, homeless and those in recovery…they do a remarkable job.
At Ganesh Himal Trading we focus a lot on women in need in Nepal and have a fundamental core belief that women, when given opportunity in a caring and just environment can heal and lead their communities in creating a more just and caring world. Women’s Hearth works on that commitment to women closer to home. We feel grateful that we can partner with this like-minded organization that works to empower and comfort women. We thank them for their dedicated work in our community. I look forward to next year when once again I hear the whispers as I open the door to Women’s Hearth with my bag of sweaters on my back and see those beautiful smiles and hear those wonderful words ….”It’s the sweater lady! She’s back”. Happy Holidays to all!
Even public schools cost money in Nepal and producers often have to pull their children out of school because they can’t afford the fees. Usually it is the girl children who are pulled out first because families will look to their long term care by their boy children. In an effort to encourage producers to keep their girls in school Ganesh Himal has given an annual contribution since 1990 to the Association for Craft Producers “Girl Child Education Fund”. This producer benefit program was set up by ACP to provide a monthly scholarship allowance to producers who keep their daughters in school for at least four consecutive years. As the program has grown ACP has been able to give the same allowance to some of the producers boys as well.
This year ACP was able give scholarships to 85 children from ages 6-17 years old. In April they invited the students to come and see the workshop at ACP and participate in some of the craft activities that their mother’s do such as blockprinting. The purpose of the program was to familiarize the children with ACP, its work and help them learn about Fair Trade. The children were given a tour of ACP and an explanation of the work they do. The three outstanding scholarship students also received a prize and special recognition from Meera Bhattarai, the Executive Director of ACP.
Ganesh Himal Trading has been proud to help this girl child education fund prosper and be successful.
Travel has always been a big part of our family life and our 14 year old son has seen more of the world than most adults will in their entire life! That wasn’t by accident! We planned it that way because we wanted our child to grow up as a citizen of the world and to be in love with all of its diversity. Having just returned from 6 weeks of travel in Peru, I think our plan is working! I watched as our son fell in love with yet another country and its people, cultures and natural wonders. In his short life he has filled his heart with the memories of his friends in Nepal, Turkey, Greece, Australia, Mexico, Peru, Europe and more. These are no longer just places on a map to him, they are places filled with people he knows and cares about and places he wants to preserve.
Night before last we got to see Rick Steves, the budget travel guru, talk on his new book “Travel as a Political Act” and his talk really struck a chord because travel, when done thoughtfully, opens your eyes to the beauty of the world we live in and opens your heart to the amazing people we share the planet with. Having just opened his book I am struck by his words “We travel to have enlightening experiences, to meet inspirational people, to be stimulated, to learn, and to grow….Travel has taught me the fun of having my cultural furniture rearranged and my ethnocentric self-assuredness walloped. It has humbled me, enriched my life, and tuned me in to a rapidly changing world. And for that, I am thankful.” He goes on to say “Travel challenges truths that we were raised thinking were self-evident and God-given. Leaving home, we learn other people find different truths to be self evident. We realize that it just makes sense to give everyone a little wiggle room.” These words ring true. We won’t all come home with the same impressions but we’ll all have our eyes opened wider and have the faces of those we’ve met and who have treated us so well indelibly etched in our hearts. That makes it more difficult to see them as our enemies. Travel, by connecting us to others, can truly be “A political act”.
As I sat and listened to Rick Steves I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between “purposeful travel” and “fair trade”. Each is about connecting and recognizing that through our differences we have a beautiful shared humanity that should be celebrated as one of the most precious gifts on earth. We get to see through the eyes of others and glimpse their own version of the world and they get to see through ours. As I’ve stood beside women producers in Nepal who have far less materially than I do, I have seen a richness of spirit that made me feel as if I were poor. The beauty though is that they shared that richness with me without a single hesitation and made my life much richer for it. In turn I’ve shared some tools with them to help them access a market that will give them more monetary stability and help them plan for their future. Fair trade and travel, they are about the rich exchange of the gifts of humanity and working toward the betterment of all. When we connect, whether through travel or trade, we remember that place of brother and sisterhood and the true meaning of a global family. Happy holidays, safe travels and thanks for supporting Fair Trade!
We just completed the 27th Festival of Fair Trade in Spokane and what an event it was. We started this event to give the folks in Spokane a chance to shop for Fair Trade items before there was a Fair Trade store in here. It’s unbelievable how folks have loyally followed us from a basement to various other venues and now to the beautiful Community Building! We see people year after year who say they wait for our little postcard in the mail so that they know when to come and participate in this event! We are always so touched.
This year we had another incredibly successful event and were joined by 6 other Fair Trade vendors with goods from all over the world and we set up next to Spokane’s beautiful fair trade store, Kizuri. All of us were astounded at the huge amount of support and the fun and community that was exhibited. It was a beautiful contrast to the stories of pepper spray out in the big box stores. I commented to several people about how wonderful it was to see people running into friends and visiting, drinking fair trade coffee, admiring the beautiful handmade products, sitting on the couch and just having a great community experience while supporting Fair Trade. This is the world I would like to envision!
We also had great publicity from our community newspapers this year and for that we are so grateful. The Fig Tree ran two different articles on Fair Trade. One well deserved article on Ganesh Himal’s wonderful marketing director Sarah Calvin entitled “Marketing fair trade involves educating and connecting people” and another about the great Fair Trade event put on every year by the First Presbyterian Church here in Spokane. That article can be found here . The Spokesman Review published a wonderful story on the front page of their TODAY section called “Value Shopping” and that drew in a lot of new shoppers who hadn’t heard of the festival before. We had so many comments from people who had read this article and were thrilled to have the opportunity to come to an event like this! The Inlander chose us as one of their Inlander Picks and wrote up a great review of the show which drew in another large group of people! The media definitely makes a difference and we’re really happy to have gotten the press we did!
It’s hard to believe that 27 years have passed since we first started this show and it’s hard to believe how many people now understand the value of placing their gift buying dollars where they really count and can make a positive difference in people’s lives. I told many shoppers the story of Laxmi and how when we first met her daughter was 3 years old and she so badly wanted to send her to school. Now her daughter is 30 and has a masters degree in social work. These are the things that happen when trade works for the benefit of all. There are thousands of these positive stories in the Fair Trade world and as more people choose to support Fair Trade more lives, particularly women’s, will be changed.
So, happy holidays to all and thanks for all of the great support. I’ll post a few pictures of the Festival and look forward to the next. Keep Fair Trade in your thoughts and support every Fair Trade store out there with your holiday shopping!
Even after 25 years it still amazes me every time a shipment arrives from Nepal! To think that these goods have come from such skilled artisan’s hands all the way around the world to our warehouse in Spokane! It’s a miracle!
So, our last shipment of the summer has arrived full of beautiful bags, the last of the summer clothing and a huge assortment of knit accessories, textiles, paper and more. It’s hard to believe it’s time to transition into fall once again but we are packing and stocking lots of beautiful knits to keep us all warm and cozy. August is a crazy month here at Ganesh Himal Trading because it’s the hottest month in Spokane and we’re pulling and packing wool knits! Thanks to so many people placing advance orders we should have a nice stock of extra knit accessories on hand throughout the fall for those who have not yet ordered or to restock your shelves when you sell out!
Sarah is busy updating the catalog with pictures of the new items that we’ll have for the fall so be sure to check out the new items area of the catalog and order those things early! They tend to fly out.
We’ll be finished pulling all of the backorders soon and be giving you a call to see if you need to add anything on. In the meantime we are working as fast as we can to get these beautiful things in your stores. Hope sales are great and that you’re having a wonderful summer![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
In the meantime, the villagers chose a site that they felt was accessible to everyone in the surrounding area and started building in the fall of 2008. They agreed that they wanted this clinic to be available to anyone who needed help and that they would not turn anyone away. They designed a 4 room, one story building in the traditional architecture of the village and located a local water source. Trees were cut from their local community forest and milled by hand. Slate for the roof was cut from a nearby quarry (all by hand). By the spring of 2009 they were able to construct the main shell of the structure.
While Nisha has been in college, a local man, who was a medic in the Nepal Army and worked for 10 years in the Army hospital in Kathmandu, has filled the position of medical personnel for the clinic. In 2009 he come to Kathmandu to meet with Sita’s friend Dr. Holly Murphy, an Infectious Disease Specialist, who is working in CIWEC Canadian clinic in Kathmandu. Holly worked with him to make lists of the supplies of medicines necessary for the village clinic and to make sure that everything needed would be ready for the clinic opening.
On February 28 the first 35 people came to receive care! By Sept 29, 2010 1600 patients (an average of 10 people a day) had been seen at the clinic for everything from maternal health care issues to burns, breaks and intestinal disorders. As of Feb 2011 over 3600 had been served! They have been able to save 3 peoples lives, one pregnant mother and child and one very dehydrated young boy! The clinic is supplied with basic lab testing facilities for urine and blood tests an otoscope for ear infections, stethoscopes, a blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and saline iv drip system.
There are dozens of others who have given generously to this dream. This clinic is dedicated to the memory of two amazing women who have held the light aloft for many of us to follow in their service and love of humankind. Aama Gurung, Sita’s mother, was a kind and powerful woman who is from the village of Baseri and led by example. She gave Sita the opportunity to become the first female to have a high school education in the area. Aama Gurung instilled great faith and humanity in all she encountered. Dr. Marilyn Ream, a physician in Spokane who worked in many rural clinics throughout the world was bursting at the seams with compassion and love. Both were amazing healers in their own way and a huge inspiration to others.
