Ganesh Himal Trading

Tag: Fair Trade

  • Travel and Trade-It’s all about connecting

    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.

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    Making friends in Turkey

    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”.

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    Making friends in Nepal!

    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!

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    Lunch with friends in Peru!

     

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  • Healdsburg may become region’s first ‘Fair Trade’ town

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    Denise, owner of Ganesh Himal Trading, with Kim and Gretchen from One World Fair Trade

    Here is a reprint of an article about a fair trade town in California. Featured in the article is one of our fabulous customers, One World Fair Trade! Denise just got back from a trip down south where she was able to meet up with them and see their beautiful store.

    Healdsburg could become the first “Fair Trade Town” in Sonoma County, part of an effort to promote fair labor practices and decent work environments in the production of imported food and goods.

    Healdsburg City Council members this week expressed unanimous support for a resolution in support of the designation, which is intended to promote a fair wage and safe and healthy working conditions.

    The idea is to make consumers more aware of the products they buy, avoid supply chains that rely on child labor and human trafficking, and guarantee “fair wages” to farmers and artisans.

    “I love the mission, the positive education,” Councilman Jim Wood told the fair trade activists who made a presentation to the City Council.

    “You encourage people to think about what they’re purchasing — how it was made, how it was grown,” he said.

    To be designated a Fair Trade Town, a community must have one business per 5,000 residents that carries at least two fair trade items.

    The goods typically are certified by a fair trade federation and might include commodities such as coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas, as well as jewelry and apparel.

    Healdsburg more than meets the minimum requirements, since 10 stores in town currently sell two or more fair trade products.

    Among those are Safeway, Big John’s Market, Shelton’s Natural Foods Market, Copperfield’s Books and some smaller coffee shops and stores.

    The most high-profile store, One World Fair Trade, which faces the Healdsburg Plaza, sells nothing but fair trade items.

    “We have thousands of products from 38 different countries,” said the owner Ray Ballestero. He sells crafts, jewelry, home decor and apparel and is a main proponent for putting Healdsburg on the fair trade map.

    Ballestero said the wholesalers who provide him with merchandise are members of fair trade organizations that have protocols that ensure an item is produced equitably.

    He said wages paid the foreign workers generally are four times the minimum wage in the country of origin. That means fair trade goods are likely to be more expensive. A pound of fair trade coffee for instance, might cost $14, versus $12 for non-certified.

    Some critics have dismissed Fair Trade as essentially a marketing ploy that benefits retailers more than Third World farmers and workers.

    But advocates like Ballestero argue that buying such products helps alleviate poverty, along with achieving other goals, including environmental sustainability, access to education and health care.

    “We can make a decision with our dollars whether it’s important to support that cause,” he said.

    He added that the Fair Trade Town designation will not mean that merchants in Healdsburg need go through a membership process like he’s done to certify their entire store is fair trade.

    “Anybody can carry a fair trade product if they choose to,” he said. “We want to provide a platform for awareness.”

    The movement gained momentum in Europe. To date in the United States, there are 21 cities designated Fair Trade Towns. A dozen are in the process, including Calistoga, according to a report prepared by Healdsburg officials.

    Healdsburg would be the fourth Fair Trade Town in California.

    “It’s a very worthwhile endeavor,” said City Councilman Gary Plass, who like his colleagues decided to wait at least until the next council meeting in September to act on the fair trade practices resolution.

    “I’d like to make sure there are no lingering questions by some of our retailers,” he said.

    By CLARK MASON
    THE PRESS DEMOCRAT[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • Recycled Silk Placemats & Runners from Nepal!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    People LOVE our recycled silk placemats and runners. Made out of recyled silk saris in Nepal, these textiles are beautiful AND sustainable. Learn more about how they are made here:

     

  • Help Ganesh Himal Trading Build a Weaving Workshop in Nepal!

    Ganesh Himal has agreed to raise $2500 help rebuild ACP’s Bhagwati groups weaving workshop. We will donate $1250 and we invite you to help us raise the additional $1250. 100% of your donation will go to the building fund. Ganesh Himal has worked with this group since 1986.

    Bhagwati Shrestha is a weaver for the Association of Craft Producers (ACP), a Fair Trade group in Kathmandu, Nepal. Like many girls in Nepal, Bhagwati was forced to leave school at a young age to help support her family. Fortunately she was able to get work with ACP, a women’s craft center established to provide low income & abandoned women with employment and training in traditional skills like weaving.

    Bhagwati has worked hard at ACP and been elected by her co-workers to lead their weaving group. Through ACP she has learned the management skills necessary to effectively represent this group. She has risen to the challenge and since her promotion her weaving group has almost doubled in size. Now Bhagwati and the women in her group are earning a good living through ACP and have she has been able to finish school and begin college while also being the sole provider for her family.

    In Bhagwati’s group the women chose to create their own communal workshop near their homes so they could easily work in their spare time, near their children. Their association with Fair Trade has allowed them to earn much needed income while gaining respect and power with in their families. They have also learned the value of their work which gives them much greater power in the marketplace.

    Their current workshop is badly in need of upgrading! They don’t have the funds to rebuild it and so have asked us for our help. Please help us reach our goal! You can make a donation by logging onto our website and going to “Women’s Projects” in our store or you can simply send us a check with Bhagwati fund in the memo line. After you make your donation we would love for you to send us a picture of your store so that we can make a collage of all of the different people who have help out with this project!

    *This could be a fun store project! Get creative or just paste the following message onto a jar and collect donations. Donate a percent of the items that Bhagwati’s group makes or even raffle off some of their items! Have fun with it and know that every penny raised will go to raising a new roof for them!* Poster

    Bhagwati’s group makes all of our recycled silk placemats and runners, blockprint placemats and runners, rag rugs and block print floor mats.

  • Fair Trade-“a counter movement to greed and waste and dominance”

    “…what we both want to happen—a counter movement to greed and waste and the dominance of corporations—is already happening. It is happening simply because a lot of people have seen things needing to be done and are doing them. They are at work without grants, without official instruction or permission, and mostly unnoticed by the politicians and the news industry. Eventually this movement will have political powers which will be in some ways regrettable. I hope it will have the sense and strength to remain locally oriented, and to resist the simplification and corruption that will come with power”

    -Wendell Berry in YES magazine http://www.yesmagazine.org Summer 2011 Issue A Quieter Life Now

    Today I just want to acknowledge all of the great local work so many Fair Traders are doing. It is indeed such powerful work and it is as Wendell Berry so beautifully writes,so often “without grants, without official instruction or permission, and mostly unnoticed by the politicians and the news industry” yet the movement is growing and educating and evolving. Everyday we at Ganesh Himal Trading remind ourselves of what an amazing network of people this is. We are grateful that there is such amazing diversity, so many innovative ideas and so many young people engaged. We constantly strive to stay true to the principles of Fair Trade and to stay committed to the small, local change-makers whether they be in Nepal or here in North America. Thanks to all of you for joining us on this journey of hope and change.