Creating a buzz in Pakistani villages http://www.shell.com/home/content/innovation/innovative_thinking/working_partnerships/world_challenge/creating_a_buzz/

Global Jur Bus was struggling to survive in her remote village in Ghizer, Pakistan. Now

she is earning money as a beekeeper thanks to Plan Bee, winner of last year’s

World Challenge.

Jur married when she was just 16. Her husband is blind and she couldn’t afford healthcare or school fees. But now her son Mehoob covers the muddy walls of their small home with letters and numbers learnt at school. He dreams of becoming a doctor. Jur will also pay for her daughter’s education with her new income from beekeeping. In the northern regions of Pakistan, poverty and political and religious unrest are widespread. Villages are isolated. And inhabitants are lucky to earn a little money toiling in the fields. Life is often hardest for women, trying to find work in a conservative society. Jur Bus, now 24, has to support her blind husband, Haji Samad Khan, and two children. “It’s hard to have married a blind person and stopped my studies to work,” she says. “Where I live women try to earn money where they can, but there are few resources. I live in a shelter owned by a landlord – I don’t have anything myself.” Jur was among the most deprived in northern Pakistan, concluded the Hashoo Foundation, which supports education

and fights poverty through skill-building. The foundation helped pay Mehoob’s school fees. Through the foundation, Jur heard about the “Empowerment through honeybee farming project” or Plan Bee.

“I was at a critical time in my life,” explains Jur. “I was going door to door begging for money for essentials and healthcare. The chance to train as a beekeeper offered hope.” Origins of the bees The northern and Chitral regions of Pakistan are ideal for honey production. Some local people started to train as beekeepers before the Hashoo Foundation – with its good connections and marketing know-how – took over the project and ran with it. It trains primarily women and then links them up with lucrative markets, including top hotels, and packaged the honey for sale at a premium price. The hotels appreciate the quality of a product that is fresh, natural and additive-free. The Hashoo Foundation buys honey on the condition that beekeepers send their children to good schools, have regular check-ups and improve nutrition. In the hope of raising more funds to expand into the international market, the foundation entered World Challenge in 2008 – and won.

BeekeeperJurBuswithhersoninfrontoftheirhomeinGhizer,Pakistan.BeekeeperJurBuswithhersoninfrontoftheirhomeinGhizer,Pakistan.

Winning makes life sweeter Plan Bee was one of over 700 projects entered into World Challenge. The annual competition is run by BBC World News and Newsweek and supported by Shell. It offers prize money to an initiative showing good business sense or innovation – Plan Bee received 27,225 public votes to earn the $20,000. The award has been used to buy tools, gloves and masks for the women, saving the beekeepers time, cutting workload and providing protection from bee stings. “I was fearful of working with the bees in the beginning,” says Jur. “But we were well trained and given equipment to protect us.” The rest of the fund was spent on selling the honey internationally and working to get the honey certified as organic and fair trade. The original aim was to train 50 women over two years – but the foundation has already trained 316, expanding into other districts including, Nagar, Chitral and Ghizer, where Jur lives. The first group of 90 women now earn around $1,500 a month and can afford to pay for their children’s education. Economic stability has risen in the region. Women feel more socially integrated thanks to the project – and the gap in earnings between men and women has narrowed. Now the Hashoo Foundation is looking at larger markets including in North America, Europe and the Middle East. It wants to train even more women beekeepers across Pakistan, and in Azad, Kashmir. “I was nowhere,” says Jur. “Now I have a home and I can sustain my life. I am thankful to the people who voted and to everyone involved in the project for this humanitarian gesture.” World Challenge 2009 World Challenge 09 is the fifth year of the initiative and is organised by BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell.

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