Geneva business imports fair trade Nepali crafts, transforms lives

GENEVA – Colorful felt mobiles of owls, dinosaurs and llamas hang high in the Fair Trade Store at The Little Traveler, 404 S. Third St., Geneva, all handmade by artisans in Nepal.

Madhav Pandey started his felt goods company with two people in 2011 and now employs more than 400 full- and part-time felt workers and designers in Kathmandu.

The mobiles and finger puppets come to the store through The Winding Road, a company started by Geneva resident Marla Showfer the same year. She went to Nepal with the intention of bringing artisan work from developing countries.

“He was just opening a small shop,” Showfer said. “Fate put us together, somehow.”

She liked what she saw and told him she could sell the items in the U.S.

She now imports more than 98% of his handcrafted goods to 1,000 stores in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe.

This past holiday season, they sold 68,000 felt finger puppets, she said.

For the uninitiated, fair trade is a designation that supports farmers and craftspeople in developing countries with fair prices, non-discrimination and not using child or forced labor.

Almost all of Pandey’s felt craftspeople are women and many work from home as they care for young children, he said.

Pandey’s felt company also supports international businesses. The felt is made from sheep wool imported from Australia and New Zealand, and nontoxic dyes to color them come from Switzerland.

The process to create one finger puppet takes three days, Pandey said.

It involves mixing water into the wool, hand rolling it, then drying it out for a day in the hot sun, Showfer said.

“There is no electricity used, there is no waste, there is no chemical waste. It’s all natural product without any chemicals,” Showfer said.

Good wages lead to children’s education

Nepal, a landlocked country between China and India, is most famous for Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. It is 60% mountainous and most of its economy is supported by mountain trekkers trying to climb Everest, Showfer said.

But creating these little felt products – toys, finger puppets, mobiles – is transformative in the lives of the workers and their children, she said.

“For a lot of people, a living wage would not allow them to put money in a bank or save money,” Showfer said. “Now that these women are working, they have two-income households. They are now able to send their kids to school.”

Pandey said Nepal’s public schools lack the basics, so most send their children to private schools and pay for tuition, books and uniforms. The cost would be equivalent to $350 to $400 in U.S. dollars for a year.

Showfer said the illiteracy rate for women over 50 in Nepal is 80%.

For women under 50 who are working for Pandey, he said 60% to 65% cannot read or write.

“Imagine walking down the street and not being able to read a street sign … or getting a government letter and not being able to read it,” Showfer said.

The next generation – the children of women working for Pandey – 100% are in school, Showfer said. Overall, for the generation of children under 18 in Nepal, more than 90% are learning to read and write.

Working and being paid a good wage also keeps vulnerable Nepali women from human trafficking, Showfer said.

“We are not certified in Nepal as fair trade,” Pandey said. “But in the meantime, we [are] doing much more than fair trade.”

Pandey said if a woman can only work in the late afternoon with a baby at home, he accommodates.

“This is what we call fair trade. Fair wages,” Pandey. “We pay them for transport – come and go – bus fare. And lunch … in the afternoon. And health things if they are sick.”

For Pandey, being paid on time is essential.

“I work for you, madam, please give me the money,” Pandey said. “Up front, she [Showfer] pay me, immediately, I pay them. It is your money, not my money. … To ask for money is no fun.”

Pandey also pays bonuses to all his employees during the festival of Deepawali, or Diwali, so they can go to their villages for a month.

Lives changed

As much as their work has transformed lives in Nepal, the lives of Pandey and Showfer also were changed by their association.

Pandey was from a small village of just 68 families in Nuwakot. A college graduate, he was 21 when he started his business in Kathmandu and met Showfer.

Showfer had just started her company, The Winding Road, at age 50. She has a master’s degree in advertising and integrated marketing communications.

No matter what new idea she would throw at him, Pandey would pick it up. For example, she wanted felted images of dog breeds, but they do not exist in Nepal. She showed him photos of popular breeds so his designers could create them.

“He is very adaptable and super smart,” Showfer said.

It took Pandey a year to get a visa to travel to the U.S., requiring an interview at the U.S. embassy and for Showfer to sponsor him. He is staying with her in January while she takes him to gift shows to see the trends in merchandise in person.

The next step for him is to complete a new earthquake-proof building in Kathmandu for his workers – a far cry from where he started with a dirt floor.

“There are so many poor people in Kathmandu,” Pandey said. “Creating jobs is the most important thing. This is what we try to do.”

For information about Showfer’s company or how to help Pandey’s workers, visit www.shopthewindingroad.com.