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Fair Trade Partners Spotlight Series

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Ganesh Himal Trading believes that if we want the world of trade to change we can’t do it alone and that we are stronger together. So in the spirit of creating a movement for economic justice that will build far into the future we want to spotlight some of our fair trade partners who are doing great work right along side of us. We hope this series will give you hope and help you see what an amazing fair trade community exists and how we can build it even stronger together.

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Blossom Inspirations

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From Denise Attwood, Co-Owner of Ganesh Himal Trading

In June I was fortunate to serendipitously run across a blogpost Change Starts with Us by fellow Fair Trader, Rosa Chang, of Blossom Inspirations . Rosa’s blogpost and her honesty touched me deeply and I realized how important it was to bring her courageous writing to a larger audience. So I emailed her and told her how much I appreciated what she had said and that I had shared her blog on the Conscious Consumer Network.

Rosa immediately responded with the kindest email giving me all kinds of information and encouraging words. She is about the warmest individual I have never met (but I hope to)!  After that we talked on the phone and from that  conversation decided it would be fun to collaborate and cross pollinate our two businesses! So here we go! Rosa has inspired us and we hope to inspire you to look deeply into the reasons why these two businesses do the work we do and to realize how wonderfully our products compliment each other. With that, we are proud to introduce our fellow Fair Trade peer Rosa Chang and Blossom Inspirations! Please read her interview below:

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With their floral candleholders gourds, Blossom Inspirations are not only supporting artisans from Perú and young moms in Chicago with Bright Endeavors. Now they are also working synergistically with Ganesh Himal by adding table placemats to support artisans in Nepal, which is good for the planet, and good for you. Cheers to the Power of the Community!

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Back to school with your Fair Trade handblocked backpack from Ganesh Himal . Inside find the book “Cuyita Wants to Know the World” and get ready to embrace culture, diversity and inclusion with a bilingual book for kids, parents, grandparents, teachers and friends.

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What inspired you to start your business? How did you choose Peru and Mexico to import from? What kind of work did you do before you went into fair trade?

In 2008, during the financial crisis, my husband Jeffrey Hansen and myself Chang Claro were impacted with the downsizing of GE financial division.

This uncomfortable moment and my homesick (I left my native country Peru when I was 25 years old to study my master in Mexico) became an opportunity to meet again with my friend and partner Jorge Cam Rosell and altogether find ways to continue being in touch with Peru, to contribute and to preserve Peruvian and Mexican art passed over generations.

I will always be grateful for what Mexico and Peru have given me: education, values, family, friends, culture, food, art, etc and this is my way to pay forward.

You recently came out with a new book, can you tell us more about the impetus for writing the book and what it’s about?

I started to write this bilingual book ”Cuva Wants to Kow the World”  over a year ago. It is inspired in many magical nights, where my husband and I recreated and read bedtime story for our girls in Spanish and English to expose them to different language and identify them with their roots.

The book talks about diversity, inclusion, empowering women to follow their dreams and come with an Alpaca toy (Cuyita, the  guinea pig) handmade by the artisan. Based also on my tech background, I used technology as a driver for social inclusion and to connect the reader with the artisan too (it contains a QR Code to find step by step how Cuyita has been made)

However, I never imagine that this book will arrive during this pandemic and social crisis and that it would become my response to COVID to support artisans on their basic needs and bring them work.

 In a recent blogpost, you talked about racism & fair trade. Can you talk about how the Fair Trade movement is connected to issues of racism, and why it’s important to address this issue within our community?

I think that Fair Trade could be an ally not only to reduce poverty, inequality but also to reduce racism, because as owners of small fair trade business, we constantly are educating people to accept other cultures, arts and traditions, promoting diversity and inclusion. And in addition, we have a very important mission, to communicate people where their money go when they buy a fair trade product, who made their products? How are they benefiting? And more important now, living in this crisis where your money can make the different to support vulnerable people or multi-millionaire. Are you reducing or increasing the equality gap, racism?

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