HASHO FOUNDATION REPORT TO MEDICAL BRIDGES

Click for full size document  Hashoo Foundation Report to Medical Bridges

TAPE AWARDS FINALISTS FOR 2010: HASHOO FOUNDATION’S EXPECTATION GRADUATION ROOM PILOT PROJECT SELECTED AS FINALIST

Congratulations!
Hashoo Foundation/Expectation Graduation Room, Houston Area Urban League Partnership, Jacobs Engineering/Jacobs-Benavides Partnership and Houston Real Men Read  have been chosen as finalists for 2010 Texas Association of Partners in Education (TAPE) awards.  This achievement distinguishes you and/or your organization as a leader in developing innovative partnerships with schools.  We encourage you to share this good news with your nominee.  TAPE will notify finalists with logistics next week via mail. 
The 2010 TAPE Outstanding Partnership awards applications represented some of the most innovative and impactful partnerships in TAPE’s more than thirty-year history.  As a result, TAPE is inviting all award finalists to attend the annual Awards Celebration, to be held Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at the Hilton Austin, 500 East 4^th Street, in Austin, Texas.  The 2010 Awards Celebration will represent a departure from recent TAPE awards events in two ways:  the award winners will be announced at this event and the event will adopt a luncheon format, being held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.     
Award finalists should plan to attend the luncheon as a guest of TAPE.   Additional tickets are available for $45 (a link to awards registration has been provided below).   Further details will follow.  In the meantime, questions can be directed to Serenity Kelton in the TAPE office at 512-473-8377 or emailing skelton@tape.org.
Thank you for your outstanding contribution to education and your work with our most valuable resources, our children.  We look forward to honoring you on January 26^th!
Awards registration:  http://fs19.formsite.com/TAPE406/form126936066/index.html
Serenity Kelton
Texas Association of Partners in Education
Programs & Membership Director
406 East 11th Street
Austin, TX 78701
512-473-8377
512-482-8658
http://www.tape.org/

SHELL GLOBAL WEBSITE – RESPONSIBLE ENERGY FEATURED STORY CREATING A BUZZ IN PAKISTANI VILLAGES

 

Creating a buzz in Pakistani villages

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.

Beekeeper Jur Bus with her son in front of their home in Ghizer, Pakistan.

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.

Winning makes life sweeter

Filtering the honey after extraction

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.

Find out more about the finalists:

• Visit the World Challenge website - opens in new window

You might also be interested in:

• Organic farmers reap rewards
• Lending a hand to African business

→ back to feature stories homepage

http://www.shell.com/home/content/environment_society/shell_world_stories/2009/creating_a_buzz/

HASHOO FOUNDATION SUPPORTS THE AMERICAN PAKISTAN FOUNDATION LAUNCH IN NEW YORK

 

Hashoo Foundation Supports the American Pakistan Foundation Launch in New York

December 10, 2009

New York, NY

Hashoo Foundation, joined distinguished leaders of the Pakistani-American community in the US and around the world to support the American Pakistani Foundation (APF)'s Inaugural Benefit last December in New York. The invitation was made to Sadruddin Hashwani, Patron-in-Chief Hashoo Foundation, by Ambassador Nicholas Platt founding member of the board of the (APF). APF is a non-profit organization classified under section 501(c)(3) which has undertaken a project to assist APF in its goals of providing emergency relief, shelter, food, medical care, and schooling for the millions of needy and vulnerable internally displaced individuals in Pakistan's conflict-affected areas. APF is currently fiscally-sponsored by the International Rescue Committee, Inc. The new organization is the result of a meeting in May 2009 in New York at the invitation of the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Sarah Hashwani, Chair Person Hashoo Foundation and Cristal Montañéz Baylor, Executive Director Hashoo Foundation USA, attended APF Inaugural Benefit accompanied by Shaista Mahmood & Rafat Mahmood, Pakistani Community Leaders; Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, U.S. Representative (TX-18); Bob Dunn, CEO & President Synergos Institute; Kulsoom Khan, Venture Team Asia Ashoka; Sarwat Malik, Vice Chair, Board of Directors Muslin Women's Fund; Nadia Malik, Muslin Women's Fund; Amna Qazi, Hashoo Foundation Volunteer; and Marianne Rammal, Consultant/Journalist Unicorn Consulting Inc.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was the keynote speaker at the American Pakistan Foundation's inaugural benefit, with Honorary Co-Chairs, Moeen Qureshi, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, and General Colin L. Powell, USA, Cristal Montañéz Baylor, Executive Director Hashoo Foundation USA,US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sarah Hashwani, Chair Person Hashoo Foundation.

(Ret), Former U.S. Secretary of State. Ms. Clinton informed some 500 guests "the United States plans to focus future additional aid on energy, transportation, agriculture, water and education". Additionally she said "the work that needs to be done in Pakistan, such as aid to bolster the economy and military operations against the Taliban, can't be done by governments alone".
Listen to Hillary Clinton remarks at the APF launch event by clicking the link below.
http://thepage.time.com/remarks-at-the-american-pakistan-foundations-inaugural-gala-benefit/

During the event, Dr. Nafis Sadik, a special advisor to the United Nations Secretary General who chairs the organization, said "the group will enlist the help of the Pakistani diaspora and pursue financial support from corporations and individuals to build partnerships on the ground in Pakistan".
Hashoo Foundation is looking forward to working with APF and continue contributing to the social and economic development of Pakistan by promoting economic development and education as well as inter-cultural relations and trust between Pakistan and the United States.
Pictures

American Pakistan Foundation launch in New York City http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/97tIqSIW5OgkT712hsX9Gg?feat=directlink

Cristal Montañéz Baylor I Hashoo Foundation USA I Executive Director
Three Allen Center 333 Clay Street, Suite 4980 I Houston, TX 77002
Direct +1 713 483-4990 I Fax+ 1 713 759-0112