Meet Banyan Tree
On July 1, the former Ten Thousand Villages-Portland store will reopen in its new location — Mercy Corps‘ headquarters in Old Town, right next to Skidmore Fountain. The address is 18 SW First. We’ll reopen as Banyan Tree, a fair trade store.
The wild and fascinating banyan tree is symbolic in many of the cultures whose crafts we carry. It also was the historic location where Hindu merchants conducted trade. So we think it’s a terrific name for our new location.
While we’ll still be carrying products imported by Ten Thousand Villages, the oldest and largest fair trade organization, we will be carrying a wider variety of crafts than ever before. As fair trade mature, the variety and sources of fair trade products expand, giving consumers more choice while offering greater opportunity to more artisans around the world.
We’re particularly excited about our proximity to the Mercy Corps Action Center. This multi-media interpretive center — one of only two in the nation (and the other one’s in Manhattan!) gives Portland residents a rare opportunity to listen, see and learn about the lives of those struggling and succeeding around the world. You can learn about the tough spots — and access ways to make a difference.
The goals of Mercy Corps go hand-in-hand with fair trade. We are thrilled to be sharing a building, a volunteer ethic and a mission.
Come find us on July 1 in our new location, and stop by the Action Center while you’re there.
In the meantime, we’re holding a fundraiser — Bluegrass for Banyan Tree — on Saturday, July 26 at the Portland Mennonite Church, 1312 SE 35th Ave. A silent auction starts at 6:30, and Lee Highway — a terrific bluegrass band — performs at 7:30. Suggested donation is $15.
Women working for change — and for their children
By Denise Attwood, co-owner, Ganesh Himal Trading
In 1986, Ganesh Himal Trading started working with the Association for Craft Producers (ACP) in Kathmandu, Nepal. This project, started by Meera Bhatterai, has the goal of helping raise marginalized women’s self-esteem and income generating skills.
Laxmi Maharjan was a woman who had woven all of her life but never seen the money from any of the work she had done. The money she earned had always gone to the male in her life, her father or her husband.
When Laxmi had children, she put away her loom, but as her children grew she realized how badly she wanted to send them to school. Her husband’s work did not give them even enough for living let alone for school.
Laxmi approached ACP and asked if they would help her to put her loom back together, market her weaving and earn money to send her children to school. ACP agreed, and Laxmi became a part of the ACP team doing traditional cloth weaving and teaching other women to weave.
Meera recalls that when Laxmi received her first pay, she cried. She explained that she cried because she had never before had power in her life, and now she did.
ACP helped Laxmi save her money, and she used it to send her three children to good schools. Laxmi herself had never had the opportunity to be educated, but she understood its value, particularly for girls. As a result, she sent her girl child as well as her boys to the same quality of school. Eventually, all of her children, with her money and encouragement, earned college level degrees.
When Laxmi first went to ACP, other women in her village became interested. With ACP’s help, Laxmi eventually organized 60 other women in her village to begin weaving, earning income and saving it on their own.
Laxmi’s work has brought economic viability and a huge change to the status of women in her village. Women have more say in their families’ decision making and have been able to influence the education and health of their children, particularly their girl children.
Laxmi’s daughter Sudha, who was educated with the money her mother earned from weaving, ended up not only learning the traditional weaving skills of her mother but also getting a Masters in Social Work. After graduation, Sudha worked for the Nepali government in a program for the blind. After several years of this work she realized that the most important social work she had ever seen was the work that her mother had done with the women weavers in her village.
Sudha decided that this was the work that she really wanted to do, so she returned to her village and has now taken over working with the weavers group to help market their products through ACP and provide for more training and help for the women.
In 2008, Sudha was asked by ACP to represent the organization at the Sante Fe International Folk Festival as a spokesperson for women weavers in Nepal. She was able to travel elsewhere in the U.S., speaking to groups about her mother’s work.
Ganesh Himal products are available in Portland at Ten Thousand Villages; Paloma Clothing; Trade Roots; and Mirador.
Edna Ruth Byler: My Grandma
By Diane Bender
When I was a young girl growing up in Kansas I loved going to Pennsylvania in the summer to visit my grandparents.
Their basement had two sections: one with Grandpa’s tools, which was interesting but untouchable, and one with Grandma’s beautiful handmade items from around the world that begged to be touched.
My sister and I helped pack the boxes that were to be shipped to various places in the United States. My grandma was Edna Ruth Byler, and that s
ection of the basement was the beginnings of what grew to be Ten Thousand Villages.
In 1946, Edna accompanied her husband, Joe, to Puerto Rico. There the Mennonite Central Committee workers showed her the fine needlework the women in Puerto Rico were making and asked her to find a way to market the pieces in the United States. She did.
She carried the embroidered samples in the trunk of her car and traveled to churches showing the handmade items and telling the stories of the artisans. Within a few years, she acquired additional hand-carved woodenware from Haiti and cross-stitch needlework from Palestinian refugees.
She later opened a gift shop in her basement. She loved showing customers the beautiful items and telling the stories of how they were made. For 25 years, Grandma traveled from the south to Canada and from coast to coast to introduce people to these handmade items and telling the stories of the people who made them.
When I lived in Houston, I volunteered at the Ten Thousand Villages in Rice Village, served on the Board of Directors as Secretary, then Vice-President, and finally President. Before considering a move to the Portland area I first checked to make sure there was a store nearby. As I unpack boxes at Ten Thousand Villages in Portland, OR, I am reminded of filling boxes so many years ago in Grandma’s basement in Pennsylvania.
As I help customers find a gift or tell them something about an item that they are appreciating, I feel a connectedness to the many people who work to bring these handmade goods to buyers and a very special connection to my grandma.