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For ten years, Aid Through Trade has worked with overseas artisans in the design and import of high quality fashion accessories while upholding the standards of Fair Trade and socially responsible conduct. Aid Through Trade began designing jewelry for skilled, but economically challenged groups of women artisans in Nepal. Members of the group stitch, loom, and braid beads with astonishing skill, producing exquisite, beautifully handcrafted jewelry.
Women have used and worn beads in Nepal for centuries. Even today, buying glass beads at bazaars is a major event. Women bargain for carefully chosen colors and styles before returning to the village to make their own jewelry. The beads come from around the world. Beads are so much a part of Nepali culture that the women's symbol of marriage is a gold ornament called a tilouri worn on a necklace of glass beads. The groom gives the tilouri to his new bride and if poverty prevents the ornament from being gold, the necklace must be of glass beads.
Traditional skill and Western fashion met when Aid Through Trade began designing jewelry with a skilled but poor Nepali women artisan group. The new markets have opened a new world of creation, income, and pride. The artisans delight in coming to the center where they not only work from ten to five, but are able to connect with their colleagues and feel the prestige of going to the office. When necessary, members are able to bring their small children. They are paid well above market rate for their beadwork, giving them much needed income and improved status.
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The Spiral Foundation was started in 1997 and is dedicated to sustaining income generation, education, and primary health care programs in Vietnam and Nepal. They work to bring about a consciousness of world equanimity by making an effort to maintain the local culture and traditions. They do this by assisting people in developing their handicraft skills and by providing funds to assist in their educational and healthcare needs. The Spiral Foundation finances two ongoing, income generation projects: The Spiral Workshop in Hanoi, and The Spiral Workshop in Kathmandu, both of which develop handcrafted gift items made from easily renewable local natural and recycled or discarded materials. All proceeds from the sale of the handcrafted items go directly back to the people that created them and to fund humanitarian aid projects.
The Spiral Foundation implements a variety of programs in several different fields. Your purchase will help to sustain the following programs:
Health
- Referral of Patients to Kathmandu, specifically: HHC Sherthung and Tipling Village health posts, hospitals in Kathmandu for diagnostic tests, as well as medical and surgical intervention for seriously ill patients. All costs of the medical services in Kathmandu, and travel and food expenses for the patients and their accompanying family members are provided.
- Salary for Health Service Providers: Two Auxiliary Health Workers (AHW) with fifteen months of formal medical training (provided by HHC) run the health posts at Sherthung and Tipling Villages (built by HHC). The salary is for one year. The AHW provides primary health care with immunizations and family planning for a population of 3500 and 2200 people of Sherthung and Tipling respectively.
Education - Adult Literacy Classes: Eight adult literacy classes with a total of about 200 students will be launched in the villages of Sherthung and Lapa. More than 80% of the students will be women of childbearing age. The students, who will be attending night classes, will be provided with basic learning tools like books, copybooks, pencils, and kerosene for lamps. Eight trained teachers will be given a basic salary to teach the classes for six to eight months. The syllabus is set by the Ministry of Education, Nepal, and modified by HHC to suit the Tamang people of the villages. The students will be taught to read and write in the national language, Nepali, and will be taught mathematics as well. Classes in health education, nutrition, hygiene, immunization, and family planning will also be a part of the syllabus. The younger students will be encouraged and helped to join regular schools.
- Teacher Salary: Two teachers will be provided salary to teach at the Lapa Secondary and Tipling Primary schools. The teachers, who are not residents of the villages, will stay and teach for nine to ten months a year in these schools. This is to supplement the teaching strength of the local schools, which are invariably short of teachers.
- Student Sponsorship in Local School: 35 children who have lost their parents and those of the poorest economic backgrounds will be sponsored in schools within one day's walk from their villages.
Income Generation - Angora Rabbits + Feed : To give impetus and continuity to the five-year old Sherthung Angora Project, ten pairs of angora rabbits will be portered to Sherthung and given to five households to raise. Feed and medicine will also be provided for the rabbits. The rabbit hair, which can be plucked with relative ease when mature with no harm to the animal, will be used to make gift items for sale.
- Cardamom Plantation: 10,000 new seedlings of the spice, greater cardamom, will be provided to the interested farmers of Tipling, Sherthung, and Lapa villages who have received basic cardamom farming training from HHC. Cardamom, which is an expensive spice, will be harvested in three years to supplement the income of the farmers.
Other - Workshop/ Village Supervisor's Salary: A supervisor will be overseeing the gift item production, which also entails trekking into villages. He/she will be provided with a fair-priced salary to manage and monitor the production of the gift items, quality control and shipping.
- Workshop Setup Expenses: A small work place will be rented in Kathmandu, where basic fixtures and furniture for the workshop will be added to facilitate the production of the gift items.
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Since 1984, Ganesh Himal Trading has worked with producer groups in Nepal, striving to create mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships with low income and refugee artisan groups. Ganesh has assisted these artisans with product development, purchasing and importing to give the artisans access to the broader global market.
In building long-term relationships with the people of Nepal, Ganesh seeks to provide local artisans with a fair, steady and reliable source of income so that they can begin to experience the benefits of economic independence and stability, and so that they can afford to educate their children to continue the trend of increasing economic prosperity.
Additionally, Ganesh strives not only to assist and educate the people of Nepal, but also to increase awareness throughout North America about the importance of supporting Fair Trade practices. Ganesh's long-term vision is the creation of a network of world trade that, like a chain "links us all together, where each link in the chain is strong, healthy and well cared for so that the chain will not break." By investing in a commitment to Fair Trade practices, Ganesh Trading works to help the people of Nepal acquire vital skills that can assist them in the beginning stages of economic independence.
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to Global Exchange Fair Trade Program
