Fig Tree - Ganesh Himal fair trade changes hands

Business can be responsible and successful

Austin Zimmerman is the new co-owner of Ganesh Himal Trading.

After 35 years, the fair trade wholesale Ganesh Himal Trading Company is passing part of its business ownership to the next generation, which is also happening among some of its producers in Nepal.

After nine years working at Ganesh Himal’s warehouse south of Spokane, Austin Zimmerman recently bought 49 percent of Ric Connor’s portion of the business. Ric is retiring, but his wife, Denise Attwood, will continue to work as co-owner.

“I will focus on learning all I can from her as my mentor,” said Austin.

Five other staff work with Denise and Austin: Eileen Palid has been there 18 years; Sarah Calvin, 15 years; Michelle Moxley, five years; Justin Becker, a year, and Kirsten Fix just started part time. Sarah now lives in Vancouver, B.C., and works remotely.

Austin said Ganesh Himal imports from cottage industries in Nepal and has development projects that benefit Tibetan refugees and women.

As a fair trade business, it has long-term trading relationships that offer fair wages and allow artisans to lead dignified lives that respect their culture and traditional craft work.

Ganesh Himal grew as the fair trade movement grew. Its model fit the fair trade model.

It co-founded the Baseri Health Clinic in February 2010 and founded the Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) in September 2014 to promote access to education for girls.

“I’m proud of our ability to show what being a responsible and successful business looks like,” said Austin. “We can put people and planet first and be successful, rather than just be in business for profit.”

Austin’s parents, who live near Fish Lake, were friends of Ric and Denise.

When Austin was 14, she was a nanny for their son Cameron and did odd tasks in the warehouse. She helped summers through college, exposing her to the business and fair trade.

With her father’s work with United Airlines, her family traveled domestically and internationally. A trip to Costa Rica when she was 13 exposed her to a different culture, economy and infrastructure.

Her family spent time outdoors, hiking and camping in mountains, so she went to the University of Colorado.

After graduating in sociology, pre-law and women’s studies in 2007, she backpacked for a month and a half in Europe with a high school friend.

Wanting to go back to Europe, she used connections from playing volleyball in college to play for a year with a Swiss team, and two years with a French team.

When she came back, Austin called Denise, saying she wanted to have a career in fair trade and wanted to job-shadow Denise to learn.

“I thought I’d work in Central America, but after I first went to Nepal in February 2012, I was drawn there,” she said.

Her visit included trekking with Denise, Ric and Cameron to the base camp of Annapurna at 14,000 feet.

“It was a crash course meeting weavers, felters, silver smiths, tailors and knitters,” she said. “I witnessed Ric and Denise’s relationships with producers from their then 28 years of fair trade wholesaling.”

Austin has now been to Nepal four times, usually spending a month in Kathmandu and nearby communities, where many producers or managers of producers in rural villages are located.

They meet to develop new products.

Keseng, a knitting group in Kathmandu, reaches out to a shelter near the southern border, working with women coming out of sex trafficking.

“We started the Power of 5 as a result of the 2012 trip. I interviewed two daughters of a producer. They received stipends to go to school. I asked Heena what she wanted to be when she grew up. She didn’t know, because she didn’t know if she could finish school,” Austin said.

Her mother was with the Association of Craft Producers, a fair trade nonprofit. Since the 1990s, it provided stipends for three years of education for girls. Heena and her sister Heema had used the third stipend, and their parents couldn’t afford $5 a month to keep them in school.

That fall, Austin helped organize the first Power of 5 fund raiser. After two years of raising funds, she helped Cameron form the nonprofit, Conscious Connections Foundation.

At the third fund raiser, they provided assistance for a young couple who held menstrual hygiene workshops in rural Nepal, providing education and reusable menstrual hygiene kits.

Ric and Denise met them in 2015 after the earthquake, while they were trekking through villages to assess the damage and needs. CCF added fundraising for disaster relief, including rebuilding the Basera Health Clinic and schools damaged in the quake.

“We eventually shifted from recovery to prevention, adding first aid training as part of menstrual hygiene training in areas vulnerable to slides and floods,” Austin said. “We realized building was not our expertise.”

Now CCF is raising funds for a $150,000 endowment to ensure that 100 to 120 students—girls and boys who are children of ACP producers—can complete a K-10 education. Eventually, interest will be used for scholarships.

The Power of 5 raises enough for the current program.

In addition, the Joy Attwood Scholarship Fund provides scholarships for two recipients a year to attend 11th and 12th grades.

“Girls completing secondary education have incredible impact,” Austin said.

The Power of 5 now supports half the salary of an ACP employee to mentor and check on the recipients.

“Through my involvement with Ganesh Himal, I have learned the art of fair trade. I also learned fair trade principles by serving from 2016 to 2018 on the Screening Committee of the Fair Trade Federation reviewing applications of retailers, wholesalers and farm-and-food projects,” she said.

Principles and practices of fair trade—which helps reduce poverty—include creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers; having transparent and fair payment practices; being committed to non-discrimination, gender equity and women’s economic empowerment; ensuring good working conditions, and respecting the environment.

Austin told of Ganesh Himal’s environmental stewardship in its business practices—creating projects using scraps, using organic materials, recycling at the warehouse and reducing its carbon footprint.

“We decided to neutralize our carbon footprint from using air freight every two months by planting 500 tree seedlings in Nepal for every shipment—3,000 seedlings a year,” she said. “Trees sequester carbon and help limit global warming for a cleaner, healthier climate.”

To plant the seedlings, Ganesh Himal Trading donates $300 a year to Eden Forestation Projects, a California-based nonprofit. It has worked in Nepal since 2015 to restore the environment by planting trees and to alleviate poverty by hiring villagers at a fair wage to plant, grow and guard large-scale forest restoration sites.

Ric and Denise also pledge to match Ganesh Himal’s $300 yearly donation to Eden Projects to make up for CO2 emissions in past years.

Ganesh Himal also seeks to ensure safe, empowering working environments for producers.

Since the quake, they helped build a communal space for weavers in one village. Austin and Denise visited the weavers at the facility last January.

The building was for a group of traditional weavers, whom they met in 2013. They work in their homes on traditional looms passed to them by their grandmothers. After the quake, the weavers first preferred to rebuild their homes and work there, but eventually decided they wanted a communal space with six looms. One was built with CCF earthquake relief funds at Kirtipur near Kathmandu.

Austin said one weaver, Laxmi, sent her daughter Suddha to school. She earned a master’s degree in social work and worked with a government agency, but returned because she is committed to fair trade as her mother is ready to retire.

“I see more children my age returning to run their parents’ business,” Austin said.

“I find incredible strength and inspiration from the people we work with. Many are Tibetan refugees,” she said. “They live selfless, loving lives.”

“Nepal is a beautiful spiritual place, the birthplace of the Buddha, but it’s also a place where I see Hindu, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims co-existing in a harmonious, accepting way,” Austin said.

Seeing people with different life experiences and building relationships of trust with them has had impact on Austin’s worldview.

For information, call 448-6561 or email info@ganeshhimaltrading.com.