Fair Trade Producers from around the world
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Dhukuti is a women's craft center established in 1984 to provide low income or abandoned women with employment and training in traditional skills. Over 700 disadvantaged women receive a fair wage for their work as well as access to health care, funds for female education, peer counseling services, a bonus program, and welfare and retirement funds.
The products created use labor intensive methods appropriate to Nepal (such as block printing) and incorporate traditional methods and designs. The Dhukuti Women's Project creates a wide variety of tablecloths, placemat sets, wall hangings, duvet covers, shawls, and table runners in rich earth and jewel tones.
In the heart of the Himalayas, Nepali craftspeople have been producing handmade paper for over a thousand years. Made from the bark of the lokta, this paper is renowned for its exceptional durability and wonderful texture.
In 1984 Bhaktapur Craft Printers, a UNICEF project, began using this ancient technology to make distinctive handcrafted paper products. The aim is to help low income rural and urban families earn a fair and equitable income while sustaining an important traditional craft. Bhaktapur Craft Printers employ approximately 200 full time employees, of which 51% and women and 2% persons with disabilities. Another 2,000 families are employed part time. Bhaktapur Craft Printers are deeply committed to community development and invest a substantial percentage of their profits in community based projects. These include water supply, sanitation, resource conservation, education and day care facilities.
Jewelry making is a hereditary occupation that can go back for generations, and many designs are traditional or symbolic. Through years of working in Nepal, Ganesh Himal has formed close relationships with families who they feel are the finest producers in the Kathmandu Valley.
The jewelers make, on the average, the equivalent of a middle class income in Nepal. They get two weeks off for festivals, have twelve paid vacation days, and get an extra month's salary as a bonus during their major Dosain festival. Like many artisans, the jeweler families are concerned that the younger generation will leave their traditional trade. Fortunately, as the average wage for skilled jewelers is now higher than that of many other jobs, young educated children are beginning to return to jewelry making.
In the mountains of Nepal, hemp has been used for centuries because of its strength and durability. It is an indigenous plant which regenerated quickly after harvesting and requires little cultivation or mechanical processing. It is the ultimate environmentally friendly fabric.
The hemp products Global Exchange purchases from Ganesh Himal are grown and woven in the villages of western Nepal. They are tailored in Kathmandu by a producer who is committed to improving the welfare of Nepali workers. The tailors and other workers creating these fine products receive a fair wage and additional benefits such as bonuses, paid leave and medical benefits.
Two Porters is a member of the Fair Trade Federation and distributes Fair Trade handcrafts from Nepal. Their mission is to support cooperatives and small businesses making products by time honored methods in order to keep traditional crafts alive. They work with groups that pay a living wage, provide a safe and healthy working environment to the artisans, and opportunities for advancement for the artisans and their families. Whenever possible, they select products which are recycled, recyclable or are made from renewable resources since deforestation has reached epidemic proportions in Nepal.
Two Porters continues to work directly with Nepali artisans on designs to make the products marketable in the West while utilizing traditional craft methods. They import new products based on traditional crafts as well as Nepali works with indigenous designs which have timeless and borderless appeal.
Lokta paper products (such as large, small, inlayed journals, and photo albums)are made from the bark of the Daphne Cannabina or Daphne Papyracea that is grown in the Mount Everest region of Nepal. The shrub, locally known as Lokta, grows in forests at an altitude of 6500 to 9500 feet. The bark of the Lokta is harvested by hand without killing the plant. The Lokta then regenerates and can be reharvested in approximately 5-7 years.
The making of Lokta paper is an ancient skill passed down through generations, dating back more than a thousand years. The inner fibrous bark of the shrub is harvested, dried and cooked. Then, the softened bark is washed and cut into small pieces and cooked again. This soft, cooked bark is placed on a flat stone and beaten to a fine pulp. Water is then combined with the pulp to form a homogeneous emulsion. This new pulp mixture is poured into a wooden frame that floats on a pool of water. The frame is gently shaken to spread the pulp evenly, then set to dry in the sun. Once the mixture has dried, a sheet of paper is peeled off the frame.
Lokta paper is prized not only for its beauty, but also for its multiple uses. Prior to the Chinese annexation of Tibet, family-run factories in the Himalayas supplied paper to Tibetan monasteries for sacred manuscripts. Nepalis still use Lokta paper today for official government documents, bandages to heal minor cuts and wounds, and for wrapping paper to retain the potency of incense, spices and medicine.