• READ MORE Fair Trade Decor Hosted a poetry reading in their store as a fundraiser!
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• READ MORE Traditions Fair Trade Organized a big yard sale and a Nepali Festival!
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NEPAL UPDATE:

NEW PRODUCTS, FAIR-AID & LOOKING FORWARD!

 

Less than three months ago we returned from Nepal, and what an amazing trip it was.  After 30 years of traveling to Nepal my take away from this trip had been how happy I was to see hope again and a movement forward after their devastating civil war. Something had changed and people felt less tense and more at ease, there was excitement about the future and a lightness in their being.

During that trip in March we celebrated with our friends at ACP the children receiving educational scholarships through our foundation’s fundraising.  We met and listened to young women with such vision and insight that it blew my mind. We worked with producers on hundreds of new products, met with a group of young paraplegic men to help create new recycled rubber products, taught weavers how to weave with plastic bags and found creative ways to use more and more recycled items in our products. We organized and set up our foundation’s newly established “Menstrual Pad Project” and delivered 2 sewing machines to the remote Baseri clinic to start a small economic development project there. We met with the village committee in Baseri that runs the clinic and together we planned for the next 5 years, hiring a new health assistant and exploring the ideas of creating a maternal health center. We explored, laughed and planned for the bright future of Nepal and our artisan friends there.

What a difference a month can make.  With the huge 7.8 magnitude April 25th earthquake, followed by the equally devastating 7.3 earthquake on May 12th life in Nepal has been changed forever. Nepali’s are the most resilient people I know and yet they have been literally shaken to the core.  Luckily all of our producers and friends are safe, but the task of rebuilding their lives and mental health will be a huge endeavor. And so, we move forward, together with them, into the next part of the journey.

So, exactly where does one start to rebuild? Back at square one, but for us with 30 years of strong relationships. For Ganesh Himal Trading our starting point was with our Fair Trade community. No sooner had the earthquake struck than we heard from stores around the country asking, no, stating, that they were going to help. They set out donation jars on their counters and made pledges to double what they received. They held garage sales in front of their stores, hosted dinners and shopping nights for donations.  There were penny drives, bake sales, concerts, zumbathons and so much more. And there were those who said they’d wait and fundraise until later when everyone had forgotten. Luckily, last summer, we created the non-profit Conscious Connections Foundation and all donations were funneled into that and into to our newly found mission of “Fair Aid”.  We cannot thank you enough for being there to do this vital fundraising right from the start.

With fundraising underway, our most important task was to get food and shelter to those we knew we could reach.  I never thought that my resume would include “relief work” but it sure does now! For the first month after April 25th we worked non-stop to get food and supplies where they were needed (we could write a book about that).  We could not have done any of this direct aid without the next invaluable part of our team: the producers themselves. Every producer we work with was affected, but all of them were ready, despite their own personal difficulties, to go into remote areas, both to their home villages and others to bring relief.  They helped us locate (and bargain for) rice, tents, tin, mosquito netting, dhal, oil and more, which they then helped transport to many devastated villages. Many of our producers live in the Kathmandu Valley but have family homes in the villages of Dhading, Gorkha and Sindupulchok. These areas were destroyed. We were able to get money directly into our producer’s hands so that they were able to begin direct relief work as soon as we contacted them. When tents were not available in Nepal we bought tents in India and had them transported on the top of a bus into Kathmandu, from there they were trucked to the families in Baseri where the clinic and all
homes had been destroyed…the list of what happened due to our producers and network of friends in Nepal goes on and on. In sum we’ve distributed over $27,000 in direct relief to an estimated 1850 families for a cost of about $15/family, this includes shelter and food for a month for a family of 4. Though the building is no longer standing, the clinic in Baseri is now functioning out of temporary tin shed, fully stocked with medicines and serving about 8 people a day thanks to the clinic’s incredible staff! We have raised enough money to rebuild the clinic and are currently in the process of finding a sustainable, earthquake resistant way to rebuild it, hopefully with a Nepali architect and team. Needless to say, we couldn’t have done any of this without our incredible network of Nepali friends on the ground willing to go the extra mile, even when their own situations were dire. Neither could we have done any of this without your help.

And then there is Ganesh Himal Trading and supplying fair trade products from Nepal.  Once again our Fair Trade community and the producers have risen to the task at hand! You all have been ordering, placing advance orders and believing we could go on. You have been patient as we run out of stock and willing to substitute items while we waited to see whether producers could go back to work. Those producers who could do it, went against all odds and started back to work so that, on June 10, only 7 weeks after this catastrophic event, our first shipment from Nepal arrived! It’s unbelievable really, but so great to see the wheel beginning to turn. We don’t have everything, but we have a lot and so we will start with that.

And, what about those amazing producers we work with? Here is a brief summary that will give you an understanding of where we stand at present and in the near future.

Many of the tailors have not returned from their villages as they are trying to provide shelter to their families for the upcoming monsoons (really just days away) and so we have some clothing, but not our regular amount. Once shelters are made the tailors will be back at work for our late July shipment.  Our felt and recycled rubber producers have been hard at work and were able to produce their full orders. The young paraplegic men finished their new recycled rubber products as well!

Our paper producers have lost their printing press and many are unable to move back into their homes, but they have improvised and made journals using prints they had on hand. These are beautiful and will be available in the large journal bundles. Some will be one of a kind! Cards won’t be available until we can help them find a new place to work in Bhaktapur but we are working on that now. It is our hope that they will be back to making their wonderful cards soon. In the meantime they will be able to make some journals and other paper items. The village of Baglung, where the paper is made, was not too badly affected and so we should be able to still get an uninterrupted supply of lokta paper.

The Lagankhal weaving workshop that we helped rebuild several years ago in Kathmandu did survive the quake and so we have recycled runners and placemats & rag rugs. Sadly, many of the homes of the women weavers in Kirtipur were destroyed along with their looms and so we are working with ACP to buy their existing stock of fabrics and we are improvising new products with the resources at hand, including: new silkscreened dishtowels, runners, napkin sets and potholders. CCF and ACP are now working together to build a safe weaving center and new looms for these women to use while they rebuild their homes. CCF has wired $10,000 to ACP for this project and has been researching safe, sustainable building models for use in its construction. In the weeks and months ahead we will work together to get this facility built.

The knitters of all groups have been hard at work sitting in tents outside their homes and using their time to knit.  This has gotten them some much needed income and many of your advance order knits are already here! Some of the  knitters we work with, however, have their family homes in Barpak, the epicenter of the April 25th quake.  Some of these knitters lost many in their extended families. The remoteness of this area made it extremely difficult to get relief there but we provided them with rice and some tents and they persevered and were able to get it in, before the large relief agencies arrived.  We all mourn their incredible loss.

Some of the jewelers that live in the Kathmandu valley are back to work. Others whose family homes are in the village are still helping to create shelter in their villages. We hope that they will also be back to work soon but their needs are to provide for their extended families in the village areas first. We have just received some jewelry and more will be available in our late July shipment.

The soap producers facility is ok and they are also back to work. They were able to send some of their order in June. We designed some new soap products with them in March and those will be coming in the July shipment.

Last, but definitely not least, our dear friends at ACP are all fine and slowly back to work. Their facility sustained some damage but they are able to work there and have been able to stabilize the areas that were affected. Their silkscreening, felting, sewing and dying units are all back to work but many of ACP’s producers, especially in the region of Sindupalchok, have lost everything. ACP will need to help provide relief to many of them. GHT and CCF’s goal is to provide relief for the groups we work with most closely in order to free ACP up to work with others. As we move through the next months we will assess with them their need for Artisan relief and help them to help producers get back on their feet as best we can.

So, what can you expect in the months ahead? GHT and CCF will be working directly with producers to get them back to work. Our next phase is to provide work space to those who have lost their homes and places of work.  This will take some time but our goal is to get people back to work as quickly as possible so that they can begin to have an income stream to rebuild their lives. We have been giving advances to those who need them so that they can buy raw materials since credit is nearly non existent now in the market. Mostly we are trying to be flexible and creative with solutions so that we can get products and get them income. Knowing Nepalis though I expect them to be back to work quickly. They are so resilient!

So, what can you do? Keep ordering and try new items! If we don’t have one thing in stock ask us what we do have and be adventurous! We have so many wonderful products and you may just find one that is a best seller that you’ve never tried before! Look for the new products we are creating using existing stock of what artisans have. These are fun and inspiring and could be one of a kind! Use our new “Celebrate Nepal” labels that we send in your shipment to highlight Nepalese items and encourage people to buy Nepalese goods, and finally, do what you have always done, stand beside us as partners as we stand beside our partners in Nepal and walk forward on this path into a better future. Namaste and thanks for supporting Fair Trade and Fair Aid for Nepal!

 

Denise

 

Post by Ganesh Himal Trading.

“We choose bundles because they are easy, we always get a great selection, and Ganesh Himal will personalize our selection, keeping our customer’s needs in mind. It’s a win-win!” Joan Frisz, Manager of Just Creations

Short on time? Want great variety? We have the solution! Earring bundles! We did this with knits and you loved it, now we’re doing it with jewelry! Here’s how it works: 

In the catalog it says earring bundle by price point. You choose the quantity and price point and we will provide a handpicked assortment of beautiful handcrafted sterling silver earrings with stones. Our prices range from $8-22. We will choose a fantastic selection of earrings and stones with as much variety as possible. Our customers appreciate our attention to detail when selecting the perfect combination of styles, prices and stones for their store.

The price reflected in your cart is based on an average earring price in this category.

Try a BUNDLE BOX! Log into our store and go to our Bundle Page.

The stones generally available include:

Amethyst, Garnet, Citrine, Blue, Green and Pink Rainbow Moonstone, Labradorite, Turquoise, Lapis, Malachite, Amber, Black Onyx, Pearl, Tiger Eye, Rhodochrosite, Rose, Smokey and Clear Quartz. Peridot and Blue Topaz are also available on a limited basis.

 

The Conscious Connections Foundation and Ganesh Himal Trading are also launching a new Menstrual Pad Project in Nepal designed to create income for women in the remote village of Baseri and provide cloth menstrual pad kits for the 180 girls who receive Power of 5 scholarships! Inspired by Days for Girls, CCF needs to raise $1000 to purchase 1-2 treadle sewing machines for the Baseri Clinic, buy local fair trade material for the kits, train women in Baseri to sew the Days For Girls cloth menstrual kits and then coordinate distributing them to the Power of 5 girls scholarship recipients. All of this done in Nepal! It’s a win-win-win AND a great way for fair trade stores to get involved in funding a meaningful on the ground project. Most of us don’t realize that not having sanitary supplies often means DAYS without school for girls. And without gear for their periods girls can miss up to 2 months of school every year! It seems natural that if CCF raises money for scholarships for girls we need to also give them the gear they need to go to school! Of course we’ll look for your support in days to come and if you want to start a fundraising project in your store to help raise funds (like the Power of 5 bookmark campaign) Then stay tuned for the tales and teachings of Period Paddie! or call us at 509-448-6561! If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to this project you can write a check to: Conscious Connections Foundation PO Box 342 Spokane, WA 99210 Please write: Menstrual Project in the memo line! You can also donate here:

  Conscious Connections Foundation www.consciousconnectionsfoundation.org is a registered 501(c)3 with the IRS and all donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Tax #47-1602190.

By PAIGE BROWNING

Spokane Public Radio

 
View Slideshow

The Ganesh Himal Trading Co. warehouse in Spokane County invites people with Tibetan prayer flags at the door.
Paige Browning Spokane Public Radio
 

https://dev.ganeshhimaltrading.com/wp-content/uploads/112814PB_Ganesh.mp3

Listen to the broadcast above!

A fair-trade company based in Spokane celebrates 30 years in business this holiday season. The evolution of Ganesh Himal Trading, from 1984 until now, tells the story of fair trade in the US.

Fair trade, as defined by the Fair Trade Federation, “supports farmers and craftspeople in countries who are socially and economically marginalized”. Denise Attwood and Ric Conner came upon fair trade before the term existed, and they came into business by accident. After college they set out to trek for a month in Nepal.

Conner: “And before we went trekking we bought two sweaters from a Tibetan refuge family…”

And they loved them.

Conner: “…And we went back to Loeb Song, the person we bought the sweaters from, and we said these were great sweaters thank you so much. And he says ‘can you help me sell these sweaters’, and we go ‘well, maybe’.”

‘Maybe’ turned into yes, and Conner and Attwood started shipping sweaters and other goods from Kathmandu to Spokane where they’d sell them at college campuses, friend’s homes, and the Spokane Civic Theater.

Attwood: “You know our whole business really was based on this idea of direct trade with people, getting the money directly in their hands, paying them a fair wage, trying to help them create lives where they could send their kids to school, where they could have stability.”

By the early 1990’s Attwood says they became familiar with other small companies around the nation who had the same mindset.

Attwood “The North American Alternative Trade Organization… and it was at that conference in Washington DC that we then began to formulate the concept around fair trade.”

In 1997, a group of these companies created the first US fair trade certification system. By the early 2000s fair trade storefronts were opening in the US. Ganesh Himal helped create one in Spokane, Global Folk Art, which has since become Kizuri. As they moved into wholesale, Attwood and Conner started crafting the products alongside the Nepalese producers.

Attwood: “… And so we would go figure out, okay this is a great fit, or maybe this needs to be a little bit bigger, or these need to be different colors…”

And Ganesh Himal set out to encourage traditional Nepalese craft work, like the handloom, but adapt the materials to Western audiences.

;Attwood: “There aren’t a lot of people here who use the type of floor mat that they weave. So I went to them and said what if I took this 3×6 floor mat and instead we made it into a table runner. They said what’s a table runner?”

They have since designed place mats, coats, Christmas stockings, and items saved from going in the waste stream, like tire rubber turned into purses and wallets. They now work with 14 producer groups in South Asia.

Attwood: “And so now we sell to over 250 fair trade stores. So in the process of 30 years as the fair trade movement has grown, we have a customer base now that understands exactly what we’re doing…”

Conner: “The only retail we do anymore is the fair trade festival coming up this weekend at the community building.”

The festival is open Friday and Saturday with a number of fair trade vendors. Part of the proceeds go to a new Ganesh Himal project in which they give scholarships for Nepalese girls to go to school.

Flipping through a slideshow of the past 30 years, Conner acknowledges they’ve experienced personal growth through their work, but he’s ready to be back where they started.

Conner: “We’ll see where we go from here, I’m ready to let the next generation take their shot at it really. I just want to go trekking.”

The festival of Fair Trade happened Friday-Sunday after Thanksgiving in Spokane’s community building. Ric Conner presented his 30-year slideshow Saturday at 3:00 at Aunties Bookstore. He says he would be willing to show it again for groups in town.

Copyright 2014 Spokane Public Radio

Read Ric and Denise’s story:

30 Years of Fair Trade in Nepal

Watch Austin from Ganesh Himal Trading create beauty with this wide magic scarf! So many ways to wear it, so much fun too!

http://youtu.be/s1-KN7xaymI

 

 

The common disposal method of tires in Nepal is burning.  In response to black billowing clouds of smoke, one of Ganesh Himal’s producer groups offered to purchase numerous tires in hopes of improving air quality.   From these tires came the first of Ganesh Himal Trading’s tire bags which today has developed into over 30 products! The bags have become SO popular that the gentleman responsible for burning the tires now has a full-time job searching the Kathmandu valley for MORE tires.

Unlike scrap rubber from factories, our rubber has seen many miles of Nepali road making each one entirely unique! This is sourcing raw materials at its finest!

Ganesh Himal’s recycled rubber tire bags are now hand stitched by paraplegic’s who have suffered spinal injury and are being rehabilitated at the SIRC hospital in Banepa, Nepal http://techoutsolutions.com/sirc/. In February of 2014, Ganesh Himal Trading’s producer partner, Sadle Traders, was asked by the project manager of SIRC to train 5 of their patients to sew these bags so that they could create a livelihood for themselves and their families. This money helps them to be self-sufficient and gain skills for their future. Each brass buckle is hand made by Sundar Lama, a spinal injury victim trained by the Sadle Traders sister company Asal-General Udyog. Sadle Traders is happy to be a part of this team to rehabilitate spinal injury victims and Ganesh Himal is proud to stand beside them and purchase their products. We all appreciate your purchase of these recycled rubber tire bags and your support of this endeavor.