New consignment of Fair Trade products from Nepal

We had another delivery from our friends at Ganesh Himal Trading yesterday. Ganesh is one of the pioneers of the Fair Trade movement, and has been bringing in product from Nepal since the early 1980’s.

This consignment was all about bags:

Hemp and “no kill” leather; we’ve blogged about this range before; it has become a firm favorite here in our downtown Springfield store and is becoming popular too in our online store. In the mountains of Nepal hemp has been used for centuries because of its strength and durability. These bags are produced in Nepal by artisans who receive a fair wage and benefits. ‘No Kill’ leather is made from cows who have died natural deaths and is softened without using chemicals.

This time we also got our first batch of hemp/cotton bags. They are little more lightweight, but just as durable and available in a wider variety of colors.

Finally (at last!) we got some more recycled tire bags. Made from the inner tubes of car tires, these bags are just AWESOME! Each one is unique, showing different levels of wear and tear.

Fair Trade garden pots

We still have a few Fair Trade garden pots, and they would look MUCH MUCH better in your yard or garden than they do in our store – plus we really really need to free up the space!

All garden pots are 25% off!

Hand-made Fair Trade cards from Bhaktapur in Nepal

We just got a beautiful new range of cards from our friends at Ganesh Himal Trading. Ganesh is a fellow member of the Fair Trade Federation and a founder member of the Fair Trade Resource Network.

Hand made cards from Bhaktapur

Hand-made Bhaktapur cards are made of Daphne Bark from managed forests in the hills of Nepal. Proceeds from the sales are used for community development activities under a program initiated by UNICEF/Nepal. The card are blank inside and measure 4.5 x 6 inches.

We plan to stock the cards in our downtown Springfield store and also in our online store.

The cards are made by a group called Bhaktapur Crafts, and proceeds from the cards are used to fund community development projects under a program developed by UNICEF/Nepal. We tried to find out more from the UNICEF website; a search on Bhaktapur brought up three (large) pdf’s – so if you’d like to read them just click here.

In terms of Nepal generally, here’s some more information from the UNICEF website:

Nepal is going through a sensitive and fluid political situation. The decade-long Maoist insurgency has taken a toll of about 13,000 lives. The conflict has hampered the delivery of basic services, restricted development assistance and caused a breakdown of family and community networks. Its heaviest impacts fall on women and children.

Issues facing children in Nepal

• More than 50,000 children die in Nepal each year, with malnutrition as the underlying cause for more than 60 per cent of these deaths.
• Half of the children in Nepal are underweight and three-fourths of the pregnant women are anaemic.
• The detection of a few cases of wild polio virus in 2005, following five years without any case, indicates the challenge for cross-border transmission along the border with India.
• Fifteen per cent of Nepal’s wells are contaminated by arsenic. Despite Nepal’s high overall coverage of accessibility to drinking water, access to improved water for deprived, disadvantaged communities and conflict-affected rural and fringe urban areas remains low.
• Two-thirds of Nepalis are still without access to toilets.
• Maternal mortality rates are high due to weak health systems with limited access to emergency obstetric care, skilled attendance and the overall poor status of women. Neonatal mortality rates are also unacceptably high due in part to lack of community awareness on appropriate care of the newborn.
• The conflict has had a significant impact on education. Forced closures of schools due to strikes have cut the school year in half in some areas. Teachers have been threatened, assaulted and even killed. Thousands of students have been taken from school for political indoctrination, and some have been recruited into the Maoist forces or militia.

Activities and results for children

• The Decentralized Action for Children and Women (DACAW) programme has proven effective through its strategy of strengthening community action. To guide the expansion of DACAW efforts, UNICEF has helped to conduct a mapping of disadvantaged groups covering 300,000 households in 237 villages and 8 municipalities.
• Nearly 60,000 boys and girls, 20 per cent from disadvantaged groups, are active in some 3,000 child clubs supported by UNICEF.
• A national measles campaign has immunized nearly 10 million children.
• In 2005, the World Health Organization validated the elimination of neo-natal tetanus from Nepal.
• A programme to de-worm children and provide vitamin A supplements is significantly reducing anaemia and malnutrition rates. The vitamin A effort is saving over 12,000 children’s lives and preventing another 2,000 from going blind every year.
• The ‘Welcome to School’ campaign initiated by UNICEF has greatly increased enrolment and literacy rates for girls and disadvantaged children, and has raised overall birth registration rates.
• UNICEF has helped to establish over 300 community-based paralegal committees to respond to issues like domestic violence.
• More than 1000 school-based child clubs are promoting sanitation and hygiene programmes in their communities.
• In 2005, UNICEF initiated with its partners a mechanism to monitor and report child rights violations in the context of armed conflict.

Windhorse Prayer Flags

We’ve just added Windhorse Prayer Flags to our online store. The flags come from Nepal, via Ganesh Himal Trading.

Windhorse Prayer Flags

Prayer flags enhance the life, fortune, health and wealth of all sentient beings. Each flag is inscribed with a prayer that will flow out over the world, carried by the wind to benefit all beings. There are 5 different colors representing 5 primary elements: blue (sky) white (air) red (fire) green (water) yellow (earth).

Each strand is accompanied with a card showing which days are more auspicious for hanging prayer flags.

Auspicious days for 2009

Fair Trade Hemp and ‘no kill’ leather Bags from Nepal

Today we added some beautiful bags to our online store.

We get these bags from Ganesh Himal Trading. GHT has been bringing Fair Trade products to the US since 1984, and are leaders in the US Fair Trade movement, playing a key part in groups like the Fair Trade Federation, the Fair Trade Resource Network and Green America.  Here’s their story: Since 1984, we have been supplying shops and retail customers in the U.S.with high quality, handcrafted clothing, jewelry, textiles, and paper. We import directly from small cottage industries in Nepal, including development projects working to improve the lives of Tibetan refugees and women.
Our goal has always been to support work that enhances people’s lives and traditions. We work directly with the
producers as a team, expanding each others’ talents and ideas. It is rewarding to work with such skilled artisanswho enjoy what they do and to know that they realize a fair return for their work.

In the mountains of Nepal hemp has been used for centuries because of its strength and durability. This satchel is produced in Nepal by artisans who receive a fair wage and benefits.We’ve added 4 bags; a passport bag, two backpacks and a satchel. The bags are made from hemp, ‘no kill’ leather and cotton. ‘No Kill’ leather is made from cows who have died natural deaths and is softened without using chemicals.

Here’s what they look like:

Fair Trade Hemp Passport Bag from Nepal

Fair Trade Hemp Backpack from Nepal

Fair Trade Hemp backpack from Nepal

Fair Trade Hemp Satchel from Nepal