Your Good Intentions Won't Buy a Sewing Machine (Episode 97)

When two seamstress sisters in Nepal decided to use their skills to protect vulnerable girls from trafficking, they sparked a transformative model of empowerment that ripples through communities. In this powerful conversation with Go Global founder Gina Guddatt, we explore how sustainable solutions rooted in local cultures create lasting change for women and children worldwide.

The centerpiece of our discussion is a remarkable sewing school in Kathmandu that recruits at-risk girls from remote villages across Nepal. Girls who might otherwise be sold into trafficking or married off as child brides instead receive comprehensive training in tailoring and business management. Beyond technical skills, they gain independence, dignity, and the means to support themselves and their families. The genius lies in its simplicity – a $120 foot-powered sewing machine becomes a lifetime tool for economic freedom.

We challenge common misconceptions about international aid, revealing why sending money rather than goods creates more impact. When organizations purchase supplies locally, they strengthen regional economies and avoid the pitfalls of shipping costs, customs delays, and cultural mismatch. This principle applies whether supporting projects abroad or in your own community.

Gina's wisdom extends beyond her nonprofit work: "Your joy is not keeping your gift inside you—it's sharing it." She reminds us that true happiness comes from giving back in ways aligned with our unique talents and passions. Whether through time, treasure, or talent, everyone has something valuable to contribute.

Ready to make a difference? Visit goglobalfund.org to learn how you can help provide sewing machines to the next graduating class of young entrepreneurs in Nepal.

Learn more about GoGlobal, the Nepal Project, or donate:

Website

https://goglobalfund.org/

Donate

https://goglobalfund.org/donate-2/

The Nepal Sewing Project

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Gina Goodett of Go Global
• 5:10 Women as the Glue: Global Impact Projects
• 8:23 Nepal Sewing School: Saving Vulnerable Girls
• 16:51 Sustainable Business Model & Local Economy
• 22:45 Why Money Beats Shipped Donations
• 26:59 Finding Joy in Giving Back

Transcript

Fatima Bey: 0:04

This is MindShift Power Podcast, the number one critically acclaimed podcast where we have raw, unfiltered conversations that shape tomorrow. I'm your host, fatima Bey, the MindShifter, and welcome everyone. Today we have with us Gina Goodett. She is out of Seattle Washington in the USA and she is the founder of Go Global. So how are you doing today, gina Goodett?

Gina Guddat: 0:36

I'm doing great. Thanks, Fatima, for having me.

Fatima Bey: 0:38

Thank you for coming on. I've been so excited about this conversation because you have a lot to say, so I'd like to dive right into it. So tell us a little bit about your background.

Gina Guddat: 0:50

Well, my degrees are in psychology. So I have a master's and a bachelor's in psychology, with a specialist in women's psychology, but I also have a degree in nonprofit business development, in nonprofit business development. So really my passion is giving back and using the gifts and talents I might have in psychology or counseling to be able to do things in the international realm. So, although I do have a thriving private practice in Seattle where I see people 10 to 12 hours a day, but in seat or telehealth, now I also am the director of Go Global, like you mentioned, and so what does Go Global do exactly?

Gina Guddat: 1:34

Well, we fund existing nonprofits on the ground in developing countries that specifically work with women and children. So we're looking for established nonprofits that are run by women whose mission is helping teenagers, children, girls in particular, educating and empowering them and really in entrepreneurship. So there's lots of levels that we look at as far as survival and having enough provisions to live but also thrive, which is building a healthy future for them. So we've done several things across the world, but we're focused right now in Nepal.

Fatima Bey: 2:20

Okay, so you're focused in Nepal. What are some of the other countries that you're in?

Gina Guddat: 2:26

Nepal. Okay, so you're focused in Nepal. What are some of the other countries that you're in? Oh gosh, we've done things in Vietnam, cambodia, laos, kenya, nigeria. We've done things, a lot of things, in India and the red light district there. As far as the victims of human trafficking and sex trafficking, I've been in Nicaragua, I've been in Guatemala, I've been in El Salvador, I've been in Kyrgyzstan, of all places. So I think, just a wide spectrum of projects where we can always see women are pretty much the stability of the community there, like the women are the glue and they're raising up the next generation with their kids to make a better community, and that's what I'm interested in.

Fatima Bey: 3:06

I absolutely, absolutely love every ounce of that and it really just speaks to my heart. So give us an example of let's go back to Nepal. Give us an example of one of the projects that you fund.

Gina Guddat: 3:24

The project that we're really excited right now, and I think it's because it's duplicatable or you could replicate. It is a sewing school, and I discovered this sewing school many years ago and went to visit it and was so impressed because it was started by two sisters, two women who were seamstresses, who had been taught by their mother and their grandmother and they wanted to pass on this skill to other women. And it's one of the few things that you can do as a female, right, like all females do the domestic work. Of course, they're the ones that take care of the children, the babies, the elderly you know the sick and women are, like I said, sort of the children, the babies, the elderly you know the sick and women are, like I said, sort of the glue of the world. But there's a few things that you can do and it's respectable as far as bringing revenue into your family, and sewing, tailoring, is one of those things. So they had had this skill and they hatched a plan that they didn't just want to teach anyone the skill of sewing. They wanted to help the victims of trafficking, or you'd say the most vulnerable girls that could be sold by their fathers, and give them a skill to keep them valuable and marriageable, actually, and so that they wouldn't end up in one of the hands of the traffickers.

Gina Guddat: 4:50

And so, if you can kind of picture, not just in Nepal but all over the world, in many areas in the world, there's too many mouths to feed, right, and so if you're the father and you have a lot of kids, then at some point you'll have to offload some of them so you don't have to provide for them, and maybe that's getting them a husband. And you know, you've probably heard that we're trying at the United Nations, which is one of my side gigs that I do as a consultant, to try to outlaw child bride across the world, and that would be not marrying off kids, right, and so. But you know, as soon as you're menstruating as a, as a, as a kid, and you got your period, then you, you know, you can go out and have babies of your own. So that might be 14, that might be 13. Some countries are even um, having kids married at age eight. But at any rate, the fathers want these kids to go and find another man that can take care of them, right, so that the father doesn't have another mouth to feed, and sometimes, unfortunately, they go to men that are older than their grandfathers could be, you know, just in order to have someone that they say could take care of them. But if they have a skill, something like sewing, then they're more marketable and they can actually be single, and they can be single business women and take care of themselves and also send money back to that father and that family to help with the younger children.

Gina Guddat: 6:19

The things that I am passionate about is working to stop human trafficking and sex trafficking. We also know that these fathers, some knowingly, some unknowingly, do sell their daughters to a trafficker and usually they think it's because they're going to be doing domestic work, like they're going to be a maid, a housekeeper, a nanny or something like that, but oftentimes they end up in a brothel in the Red Light district. So back to the story of the two sisters that started the sewing school in Kathmandu, nepal. They put feelers out in all of the regions and it's kind of like counties when you think of a state into all the counties or regions of Nepal and started asking the leaders which girls are vulnerable, which girls are kind of on the chopping block to be sold or come from families that are poor, that might be vulnerable, right. And they worked with the leaders, they worked with sort of the midwives, they worked with the pastors, the ministers, like anyone who sort of knew the ins and outs of the households in each village, and they committed to sort of like recruiting a couple girls from each region every four months to come into this makeshift sewing school at first. I mean now that it's been going for 15 years, um, it's really quite, quite an industry. But, um, back then they could take, just you know, eight to 10 girls. Now we still try to keep it to 10 to 12 girls and they come in for four months and they learn everything from measuring to sewing, to making patterns, to picking out fabric and thread and all of that. But in recruiting these girls they also had to pay the bus tickets, right, because think of some of the villages were up in the mountains and some were way far to the other side of the country, of Nepal. So they had to send a bus ticket, they had to get permission from the fathers, they basically brought these girls in and they housed them for four months.

Gina Guddat: 8:34

Now, if you've ever seen homes in this area in Nepal, india is the same. They just kind of build them upward. So when you start out and you can afford a house, you might have one floor and then, as you start to become more successful with your crops or your agriculture you're selling your goods in the market then you can build the next floor on top of that and then the next floor, and then so you'll always see houses that look undone right, with rebar sticking out the top. Well, these two sisters got help from their brothers and the community and their uncles and they put another floor on and they decided that they would have one floor for themselves and one floor for the students. And then, over time, they made another floor for a bunkhouse so that they could create the sewing machine classroom on one floor. And then the next floor up was the bedding and the next floor up was going to be, you know, the kitchen.

Gina Guddat: 9:30

And then, you know, finally there's and I've seen it grow over time, but in the beginning it was very uh, makeshift, you know you could say, but they did it and they started training these girls to make the native customary clothes that people really needed, and not something just for, you know, the tourist or some kind of little trinket that you see in airports, you know, to take home for a souvenir. These were things that people really needed to buy, and then, in sending them back to the villages, and then in sending them back to the villages, wow, their reputation went up and suddenly they were esteemed. And this young she could be 15 years old is now able to make clothes and tailor clothes and fix people's clothes and patch things, and so we saw this as a as a very successful model. Right Is, we could keep doing this and find a way to help this sewing school, which, in essence, is a rescue center? Yeah, then we could make a huge impact, because then these girls will then train their daughters.

Fatima Bey: 10:38

I I wow, I absolutely love the fact that these, these two women, decided to do something from where they were and that's the most any of us can do is to do what we can from where we are and they decided that they're going to build the people around them in a business, one at a time. You can't bring everybody, but you can do something, and I think that is a mindset and a principle that a lot of us need to live by, and so so Google Global funds them right now, correct?

Gina Guddat: 11:15

Yes, exactly. So you know money here doesn't go very far. Money in Nepal goes a long way. So you have to realize that the average monthly income in Nepal for a family is $600 a month for a whole family. So you know, most people are below the poverty line, as we would see them, and are really struggling and are dependent on their own little garden to feed their family and whatever it is that they can sell in the market. So having someone trained up as a tailor, seamstress, that monthly income is going to go sky high in their eyes, right.

Gina Guddat: 12:01

So when I got ahold of this project and I saw how these two sisters were basically sacrificing their own home to house these strangers, in essence, and also it was kind of risky because their traffickers are out to get some of these girls because that's their line of business, right. So we don't advertise it, we don't have an address on this building, we don't tell people exactly where it's at, but I saw that there could be a need for a further expansion of providing each girl with a sewing machine. So, as it was, when I saw this school, the sewing floor of the house was set up very nicely, with a board at the front, an old chalkboard and everybody had a station. But I thought how about if, when these girls graduate, they get to take the sewing machine with them? Right, because they would go back, they would know how to sew, but they'd be helping someone else or they'd be doing hand type sewing.

Gina Guddat: 13:07

If they were part of a big city, in downtown Kathmandu, they might end up working for one of those big factories just putting a zipper in, a thousand zippers in every day the same task, which is how factory work is. You might get a dime a day for doing that. But how about if they could have a sewing machine and actually set up a shop and have passer buyers come and drop off things they needed to have repaired or fixed, or that they could commission something they needed to have sewn for a celebration or anything like that? So that is kind of what we started doing. Is how about if each girl actually got a sewing machine and we we surprised them. They don't know this, they, they, they're really like working so hard for four months to graduate and get this certificate which to them it's like a college degree you know, for them it's they don't have education, so they make a very nice certificate.

Gina Guddat: 14:01

We get them any rate. They're super surprised to get the sewing machine and get back on the bus and the long two day journey home or whatever it's going to be to start up shop. So we've added components on how to run a business, how to purchase fabrics, what kind of scissors that you need, yes, and so really expanded the ability for them to succeed as business.

Fatima Bey: 14:24

So this is so, oh, my God, so awesome.

Fatima Bey: 14:27

So you're not only not only are they taking girls out of, out of less than desirable situations, bad situations, but teaching them an employable trade, but going a step beyond that and teaching them entrepreneurship, because that, to me, is where the gems are. That is where the gems are, that is what can make the biggest difference in their lives. Taking people out of bad situations is beautiful. It's one thing, but it's another thing to teach them how to be sufficient and prosper for themselves where they are and not trying to Americanize them, which is, unfortunately, what some American organizations do is try to Americanize them or have them do things that are Western. They don't live in Western civilization. They live where they are, and I believe that people should prosper where they are, and we should teach them and help them to do that where they are not trying to make them to be like us and in everything you're explaining I hear that and so Go Global helps to fund all of that.

Fatima Bey: 15:31

You're a part of making that happen, and that is key. So let me ask you this question, because this is something people tend not to think of enough. As you're helping them would well wishes and your good, well-mannered, well-intentioned heart would that buy sewing machines.

Gina Guddat: 15:55

No Hopes and dreams, do not get it done. As you have said before on your show, it might motivate you but it doesn't get it done. So sewing machines in Nepal cannot be dependent on electricity. So, yes, it takes real funds to, in this example, this project. Buy sewing machines, but they have to be the kind of sewing machines that are purchased in the region, that are the treadle kind that you power with your feet and I don't know if anyone even knows this anymore. My grandmother had one of these kind of sewing machines, but you literally use your feet to paddle it and that makes the needle go up and down. And we buy those. They buy those from the manufacturer from that region who delivers those and installs them for $120 a piece. Oh wow, are you serious? That is cheap, it is so cheap.

Fatima Bey: 17:11

I know. I know how much they really cost as a seat dress. That's a drop in the bucket.

Gina Guddat: 17:15

And they'll say, well, we'll donate you a sewing machine.

Fatima Bey: 17:18

I said no, don't do that because the cost of me I was just going to ask you that it's going to far outweigh the benefit and they don't know how to use them.

Gina Guddat: 17:26

And there's no electricity and you know so we try to use the local economy um, together with a project so that everyone's benefiting. So the manufacturer of the sewing machines, the delivery people that set up the sewing machines you know all of that is purchased within that region. And the fabrics you know people have tried to donate fabrics from like quilting clubs, from their church. No, thank you. They need to buy the fabrics from the region because it helps to fund those textile makers that are right in that area. So, yes, it does take real money, not just hopes and dreams. It was a great idea, it was hatched on the ground with a real need and it's sustainable. And so $120 buys one machine and we have, you know, 10 to 12 girls every four months.

Gina Guddat: 18:22

And that is such a reasonable ask from funders, from anyone that wants to help, from anyone that wants to raise money in their school to buy one sewing machine for one girl. That could pass this on, by the way, to hundreds of other people. Yes, yes, right. And these sewing machines are not like today's sewing machines, where people, you know they, get tired of one electronic and they throw it in the dump and they get the next best, greatest thing that's shiny. Oh no, they'll have that sewing machine for their life and they'll probably pass it on to their grandkids, it'll probably still work.

Fatima Bey: 18:54

I want to go back to what I said earlier, because you literally just gave me a perfect example of the, the point that I want to drive home. As an American, we think, oh well, I have fabric, I have thread, I have all these sewing supplies. Why don't I just set, send them to her so she can ship them overseas? That's the. That's a prime, detailed example of the American mindset. I'm talking about Um sending stuff over, and I know this because I have. I know this because I have looked at sending stuff over uh to other countries as well as far as sewing supplies and come to realize I'm better off giving the money because then they can buy it locally oh yes, people don't understand when you ship stuff to just about, and it doesn't matter what country it is.

Fatima Bey: 19:44

If you ship stuff to just about anywhere in the world, it's a bajillion dollars and that costs more. And not only that, but let me also explain this to the audience, and I know you know this already when we decide that we want to ship something overseas, with our good hearts and good intentions, you have no guarantee it's going to make there. A lot of these mail services in these other countries are corrupt as hell and they have no guarantee he's going to make there. A lot of these mail services in these other countries are corrupt as hell and they take what you send and keep it. This is why money is actually better, and this is not just about Gina's organization. If you're going to donate to any organization, especially if it's overseas, I strongly urge that you actually give them money instead, because then they can buy it in their local economy. They have control of it. Nobody can take it out of their hands at the airport or at the shipping dock or wherever it is for that country.

Gina Guddat: 20:38

These are things that really happen, Right, Gina? Yes, I can speak to it. Just recently I was in India and this is another show, Fatima but I was delivering thousands and thousands of condoms in the red light district, At any rate. I was shocked because someone in the States wanted to set up a library for this area of disadvantaged women so that they could have some resources and books. And they sent it in those big container shipping boxes, I guess, and they were on a ship in the harbor in India for five years.

Gina Guddat: 21:20

What? Because the customs would not let those books into the country because they thought, I believe, that they could make, like what you said, make money off it. And just the tariffs and everything else alone it wasn't a donation the shipping cost of those books, the sitting in the harbor for five years probably they're going to get sold off anyway and the tariffs that the nonprofit that wanted to have the library books wouldn't have been able to cover that anyway, Right? And so it was a really, really bad idea. And then I asked them and let's just not forget the fact that these books are probably written in- English.

Fatima Bey: 21:59

Good point, gina. Another. Another point of I want to and this is not just about Americans. Sometimes we want to westernize other people's cultures and you know we think as Americans, we think like Americans, so we think everywhere else is like America, when in fact almost nowhere else in the world is like America. And you know there's similarities in other places, like England or Germany, but they're still just very different. And I just want to make sure people understand. For those of you listening, you may be well intended, you might want to send stuff over, but you're better off and it'll be less waste if you send money, because then that money can purchase. And I strongly agree with, as you said, promoting the local economy. We're always saying in this country, buy local, buy local. Well, they should buy local too in Nepal or in China or in Guatemala or Kenya name a country. You know they should buy it right.

Gina Guddat: 23:07

Exactly, and you know the fact, with the money too is what I like about the way we all set up Go Global my board and I and my daughters you know I have four daughters, so they're all involved in nonprofit work as well is that anyone that makes a donation gets a tax write-off because it's a United States nonprofit, it's a 501c3. However, I can then turn around and, in very specific legal ways, get that money into the hands of the two sisters and the sewing school, where they can then, in their currency, have full power to purchase those sewing machines and what they need in the sewing school, and so I feel like it's a win-win on both sides.

Fatima Bey: 23:54

I love that so, so, so much, and you know I'm a seamstress so I got to. You know that's my wheelhouse is sewing, and I love the fact that these girls are learning a trade that's going to help them to prosper and not just survive, and that's what everybody should have, or at least get to that point. So, gina, I want to ask you for all the youth out there who are listening right now all over the world, what advice do you have for them?

Gina Guddat: 24:27

all over the world. What advice do you have for them? Wow, I, my advice is use your interests, use your talents, use your gifts, use what comes naturally to you, use what's on your DNA to further the good in the world by giving back. And I don't know what that is. You know what that is, everybody knows what that is, but something will resonate with you and what I found in my life and also working with my patients, is that happiness, true happiness, really always comes from giving back, and it doesn't matter how much you have or how little you have. It could be time, treasure or talents.

Gina Guddat: 25:11

And I always tell people you know there's one of those three things. You know you either have time, you either have a talent, or you maybe you have a little treasure, but in one way or another, there's going to be a project for you and you may start your own nonprofit someday. You might start out mentoring, you might be volunteering right now somewhere local, and you can do local, you can do state, you can do national or you can do international work Right, but always, and I taught all of my kids that are now in their mid thirties, and I taught all of my kids that are now in their mid thirties. Your joy is not keeping your gift inside of you. It's, it's sharing it.

Gina Guddat: 25:52

It's getting it out there, right. So, uh, that's my best advice.

Fatima Bey: 25:56

I literally just posted, uh published a blog this morning about the gems inside us. That's too funny. I literally just did. So how can people help you, how can listeners help you?

Gina Guddat: 26:12

yes, if they would like to help specifically with the sewing school, um, you can go on our website, it's goglobalfundorg, and um sure Fatima will post it and you can donate any amount that you want towards the sewing school and a sewing machine. And I have people do $5 and that's great, and so if you want to help directly and you want one sewing machine to go to one girl, we have a graduating class that's going to need sewing machines here, I think the end of August, and then we'll have another one again around the holiday time. So it's it's a revolving. You know, once these girls graduate, then another 12, we're going to come right on in. They've got a waiting list. We know who the vulnerable are. We know who the willing hearts are that really want to be part of the program. It's starting to get out actually, where women and girls are starting to learn. Oh, my goodness, there's this place way over in the other side of the country.

Gina Guddat: 27:13

I want to go. So if you want to sponsor a sponsor a student, you, you definitely can by going onto our website.

Fatima Bey: 27:20

Well, gina, I want to talk to you for about 17 more hours, but neither one of us can do that right now. I absolutely love you and totally believe in what you're doing. You're doing a lot of what I want to do in the world and I really admire you for doing it. I know it's not easy. We only see the front facing part that we're talking to right now, but I know behind the scenes there's a lot of work that goes into what you do and a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes into creating it. So for, on behalf of all the young women in the world that you help, thank you, thanks for having me.

Fatima Bey: 27:58

And now for a mind shifting moment.

Fatima Bey: 28:05

I want to point out something to you that is an overarching principle that I really want to make sure you understand. While Go Global does a lot of things that I absolutely love and respect, do you have local people or groups, organizations, that are also making a difference for the next generation, that are also making a difference for the next generation when it comes to overseas? Yes, money is the absolute best way you can give, aside from going over and volunteering your time and services. If that's not possible for you, $5 is Give something for the people who are doing the work, but beyond that, are there other ways that you can give. Who's making a difference in your state, in your providence, in your neighborhood, in your town, in your village, in your area? Who's making a difference there? I bet they could use your support and for them they might not need money. For them, they might need you to volunteer, they might need your time.

Fatima Bey: 29:14

Money can buy a lot of things, but some things money can't buy. So I want you to think about how you can make a difference in the world by making a difference around you. A difference in the world by making a difference around you. You've been listening to MindShift Power Podcast For complete show notes on this episode and to join our global movement, find us at FatimaBaycom. Until next time, always remember there's power in shifting your thinking.