The Hashoo Foundation commits to empower women in the Northern Areas and Chitral regions of Pakistan by expanding employment opportunities and generating a stable source of income through beekeeping.

The Hashoo Foundation commits to empower women in the Northern Areas and Chitral regions of Pakistan by expanding employment opportunities and generating a stable source of income through beekeeping.
Show Less [-]

The Hashoo Foundation strives to reduce poverty, with a strong focus on marginalized communities, by creating an environment in which sustainable and dignified livelihoods is attainable to the largest population. The Women Empowerment through Honey Bee Farming project will address the discrepancy between male and female beekeepers in the NAC by educating and supporting women beekeepers. This project will help give voice to marginalized women by enabling them to provide for themselves and their dependants through beekeeping.
Show More [+]

The Hashoo Foundation strives to reduce poverty, with a strong focus on marginalized communities, by creating an environment in which sustainable and dignified livelihoods is attainable to the largest population. The Women Empowerment through Honey Bee Farming project will address the discrepancy between male and female beekeepers in the NAC by educating and supporting women beekeepers. This project will help give voice to marginalized women by enabling them to provide for themselves and their dependants through beekeeping.


Hashoo Foundation has already engaged in creating partnerships with stakeholders within Pakistan. A CGI commitment to action will enable the Hashoo Foundation to reach out to potential partners beyond Pakistan and join efforts in the global fight against poverty.
Show Less [-]

The Northern Areas and Chitral (NAC) are amongst the poorest and most isolated regions in Pakistan. Due to severe weather conditions in winter, access to the region can prove very difficult for up to six months a year. The consequences are a limited access to education, health facilities, and a lack of gainful employment opportunities.
Show More [+]

The Northern Areas and Chitral (NAC) are amongst the poorest and most isolated regions in Pakistan. Due to severe weather conditions in winter, access to the region can prove very difficult for up to six months a year. The consequences are a limited access to education, health facilities, and a lack of gainful employment opportunities.


The economy of these areas is mainly based on subsistence agriculture organized at the village level. However, even subsistence farming is difficult because cultivable lands are scattered, landholding is limited and markets are distant. Unemployment in these areas is very high and enterprise culture is hindered by the lack of storage facilities and other marketing services which force farmers to sell their production at once or let the produce go to waste.


Supporting the Honeybee Production project is a relevant strategy to provide the residents of the NAC with improved livelihoods while promoting women advancement within their community.


A study supervised by Hashoo Foundation found large discrepancies between women representation in the beekeeping sector of the NAC and the income they generate when compared to their male counterparts.


Women account for 55 percent of honeybee producers in the NAC. Their average productivity (17,91 kg/year/hive) is slightly higher than the global average (16,25 kg/year/hive). However, they only account for 35 percent of the total income generated by honeybee production in the NAC. This discrepancy could arise from the fact that 68.2 percent of women beekeepers in the NAC own less than five hives, which is the critical point at which keeping bees become profitable.


In the neighbouring district of Gilgit, and surrounding areas, 87 percent of the total honey production is purchased on the local market. Lack of storage facilities, processing equipments, market information, and poor access prevent beekeepers from reaching potentially more profitable down-country markets. Beekeepers are also not aware of the income supplement they could generate through the exploitation of the four major honey by-products: beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis.


This project will scale up the achievements of a previous project carried out by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in this region. In the district of Gilgit, neighboring Hashoo Foundation's project area, the AKRSP introduced honeybee keeping and honey production as an income-generating activity in 1993. They provided trainings and inputs to local beekeepers. They also tried to develop linkages to market for the local production, but faced difficulties with the implementation.


Hashoo Foundation's project will focus on successfully creating such linkages with markets. By addressing local women issues, beekeepers or newcomers, providing inputs and trainings, and focusing on the production of by-products, the Honeybee Project will allow these women to increase their income and to become more integrated in decision-making process within their community.

The project that will cover the NAC includes six districts: Ghanche and Skardu (also known together as Baltistan), Gilgit, Diamer, Ghizer and Chitral covering 74,200 km2 of hills, valleys, and high mountains. In the district of Ghizer, the cluster of villages surrounding Hatun and Gakuch will be the main area of focus. Hatun cluster comprises of eight villages and Gakuch, 11 villages. The AKRSP formed Local Support Organizations (LSO) mobilising and organising communities residing in those villages. Hashoo Foundation will collaborate with these organizations in the opening phase of the project. The LSOs will identify the prospective trainees. In the district of Chitral, located in NWFP, the project will operate in the valleys of Karimabad and Biyar and cover five villages altogether. The AKRSP has been conducting projects in this area since 1982. One of them involved delivering Business Development Services (BDS) to local farmers.


By the end of 2009:

- 50 Women will be trained

- 50 Households will be supported

- 150 Honey bee hives and inputs will be provided

- 50 Women will be producing honey

- 10 percent Income will increased through sale of honey

- Two Honey Bee Associations of women will be formed

- 50 Women producers will be linked with the market


TIMELINE:

Anticipated Launch:

December 2007

First Milestone(s):

Component 1: Women enabled to access gainful employment.

Component 2: Advanced female beekeepers increase their average productivity engage in the production of by-product.

Component 3: NAC beekeepers organize a production unit following international standards to be operational at the latest in April 2009

Component 4: NAC producers secure a more diversified client database for all bee products.

Component 5: Beekeepers strengthen the sector by generating support services.


Helping women Beekeepers in northern Pakistan provide for themselves and their dependants

Participants in this Activity:

Hashoo Foundation
Show Less [-]

August, 2009

- 3 MoUs have been signed as follows:

-Collaborating with University of St. Thomas Micro Credit Program (UST MCP).

-Owl Micro Finance (OMF a non- profit organization run by students from Rice University).
Show More [+]

August, 2009

- 3 MoUs have been signed as follows:

-Collaborating with University of St. Thomas Micro Credit Program (UST MCP).

-Owl Micro Finance (OMF a non- profit organization run by students from Rice University).

-The Micro Finance Initiative at the University of Houston (MFI UH) where students will provide loans (microfinance) to women beekeepers.

- Trained an additional 207 women in Honey Bee Keeping. Now a total of 312 women beekeepers have been trained. The geographical expansion has taken place as follows:

-Jaffarabad in Nagar.

-Chatonkhan in Ghizer.

-Mominabad in Hunza.

-Kalash in Chitral.

-Chakoti in AJK.

-Overall project interventions extended from 10 existing villages in Gilgit to 23 villages in the above areas.

- Hired a branding company that has completed branding the honey, due to be launched in the market at the end of September 2009. The prize money from the BBC World challenge was used to hire the renowned compamy Saachi & Saachi.

- Expanded from Hashoo Group of hotels to superstores super stores such as D. Watson, Shaheen and a chain of CSD stores (99 stores nationwide) CSD, a major nationwide retail outlet in Pakistan, has agreed to display Hashoo's new branded honey for sale at their shelves.

- Expanding Hashoo's 5-star client base to Serena Hotel in Islamabad, to whom they sell honey in bulk. Currently Hashoo has contract through which they provide 50 kg of honey to Serena Islamabd. The profits from this sale are invested back into the project in terms of training and expansion cost.


July 9, 2008


The Hashoo Foundation has mobilized a local organization of producers in Pakistan (Northern Areas Honey Bee Keepers Welfare Association - NAHBKWA) to expand the training base and increase the production of honey. Most of the female producers have gained access to employment through this program. Due to the mobilization activities carried out by the Hashoo Foundation, the type of work and lifestyle of the beneficiaries have changed: women shifted from traditional house chores to being involved in many technical aspects of honeybee farming (extraction, harvesting, etc.).


Women are also involved in the production of bee wax and pollen as a by-product, though marginally. Their production is sold both in and outside local markets. The Hashoo Foundation's strategy is to consolidate the five-star hotels' market before expanding to regular customers. Additionally, steps have been taken to obtain a fair trade certificate for the honey sold under this project. In the same drive for quality, the Hashoo Foundation is working toward obtaining internationally recognized organic certification for the honey.


Milestones:


- As a result of NAHBKWA's mobilization, 30 women were trained and 20 more women were engaged in the production of honey.


- Ninety producers and 600 dependents are benefiting from honey project and 60% of the honey producers associated in NAHBKWA are women.


- The standards of production have improved dramatically: honeybee farmers adapted from producing for a local market to producing for 5-star hotels customers.
Show Less [-]

SEEKING: financial resources, implementing partners, best practices information, media/marketing.


OFFERING: best practice information.

SEEKING: financial resources, implementing partners, best practices information, media/marketing.


OFFERING: best practice information.



Show Less [-]