At Ganesh Himal Trading, everything we do is rooted in one powerful belief: long-term partnerships create lasting change. For over 40 years, we’ve worked hand-in-hand with producers, communities, and retailers to build relationships that empower everyone involved.

We’ve intentionally partnered with groups supporting marginalized communities, including women and Tibetan refugees, helping them gain access to fair trade markets that empower and uplift. Over the years, we’ve seen women gain control over their earnings, make independent decisions, and confidently shape the future of their families and communities.

Through our non-profit arm, Conscious Connections Foundation, we go a step further — addressing critical economic barriers like access to healthcare and education to ensure that our partners and their communities can thrive.At Ganesh Himal Trading, we believe trade is more than an exchange of goods — it’s a powerful connection that honors people, traditions, and our shared planet. Together, we’re building an equitable future, one partnership at a time.

Women in Guatemala sewing and weaving for a better life.

The women in Guatemala are my heroes. Every day they face so many obstacles most of us cannot imagine. They are survivors creating beauty in the midst of harshness. Indigenous women have been weaving on back strap looms since they were little girls. The patterns and colors from the various regions are imbedded in their minds and hearts. Colors that don’t seem to go together are woven into beauty. For almost 20 years, I have been involved in marketing crafts from the artisans I have come to love in Guatemala. And soooo, after serving as a Presbyterian Mission Co-worker for 5 years, with my husband Brian, we have retired and created Resilient Threads.

Fair-trade import business, Conosur Imports, helps provide a living for artists and crafts people in 11 Chilean families by selling their products.

Maya Earth Coffee is an Importer and works with coops Guatemala. Maya Earth Coffee’s is indigenous,fair trade, certified organic and coop-grown.

Maya Color imports artisans hand-made folk art, weaving, music instruments, wood carvings and crafts from Guatemala.

At Mahima, each creative program carries a deeper meaning. These aren’t just activities—they are ways for women to heal, reclaim their stories and rebuild their lives with dignity and hope. Through candle making, sewing, beading and story circles and narrative practices, Mahima strives to help refugee women address both mental and physical challenges. “The mental, which is internal, we address through Story Circles & Narrative Practices—offering healing, validation, and the chance to rewrite one’s story. The physical, which is practical, we address through entrepreneurial, income-generating opportunities such as sewing, beading, candle making, including other traditional craft and networking events.” A legal 501c3, all donations to Mahima for goods or henna are tax deductible.

Nicholas was a 2022 Spokane Arts Grantee“Nicholas Sironka is an artist, teacher, and gifted storyteller born and raised in Kenya. He has been a resident of Spokane for over 20 years. In 2001, he was a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Award and began his journey into bringing traditional batik art and his own Maasai culture to countless children, students and teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as in colleges and universities in the United States.”

Rachel Ferguson, founder and director of the nonprofit Sweet Grass Healing Arts and Wellness Collective, brings her Indigenous perspective, trauma-informed care, holistic practices, health care advocacy and passion for healing to her non-profit organization.