Building on the success of the Hashoo Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment through Honey Bee Farming Project Plan Bee, the Chapelwood Foundation in partnership with the Hashoo Group funded the expansion of the Women’s Empowerment through Honey Bee Farming Project Plan Bee in Skardu in Baltistan, Pakistan.
Working in Remote Mountainous Areas
Skardu is located in a remote, isolated area of Northern Pakistan at an altitude of nearly 2,500 m (8,200 ft). The town is surrounded by grey-brown colored mountains, which hide the 8,000 meter peaks of the nearby Karakoram range at the confluence of the Indus river.
The objective of the Plan Bee Skardu is to enhance income of the target families through honey bee farming and to help them use the extra income for education, health care and food for the children.
Empowering Communities
Initially, Plan Be Skardu was proposed to empower just women through honey bee farming. As the Hashoo Foundation was developing its baseline survey and selection criteria for the women, some of the men in the area approached the Foundation and described the lack of employment opportunities and the need to earn a livelihood for their families by undertaking entrepreneurial initiatives. These men requested to be trained in honey bee farming with the women. This is a remarkable social change since this region is considered as one of the most male-dominated areas in Pakistan.
Promoting Economic Development
On April 2011, forty (40) new beekeepers (20 women and 20 men) were trained in honey bee farming as part of the Plan Bee Skardu project. The Chapelwood Foundation sponsorship provided the beekeepers with training, beehive kits, extractors, masks, and the opportunity to earn a sustainable income to provide for themselves and their families. Each beekeeper received 2 beehives and is expected to produce 16-18 Kg of honey per beehive per annum, which will earn approximately $128.00-$144.00 accordingly. This income will allow the beekeepers to improve their quality of life. This project has an indirect impact on 253 dependents.
Promoting Education
Plan Bee Skardu is based on a system of social barter. Hashoo Foundation trains the beekeepers, provides technical assistance to ensure quality production, and buys the beekeepers' honey for 20% above the market price. The Foundation successfully links the beekeepers to the lucrative markets of 5-Star hotels, grocery stores and other venues in Pakistan provided that the families agree to send their children to quality schools, have regular health check-ups and improve nutrition at home.
Plan Bee Skardu will enable 106 school-age children to have access to quality education.
Traditional Social Setting and Gender Disparities
The successful implementation of the project has not only resulted in empowering individual beekeepers and their families, but has paved the way for future interventions by breaking traditional barriers in a highly conservative local society. The traditional social set-up, lack of access to education, and gender disparities in the area were the main hurdles confronted during the mobilization phase of this project. The Hashoo Foundation team played a very important role in achieving the set objectives effectively and efficiently.
The successful implementation of the project has not only resulted in empowering individual beekeepers and their families, but has paved the way for future interventions by breaking traditional barriers in a highly conservative local society. The traditional social set-up, lack of access to education, and gender disparities in the area were the main hurdles confronted during the mobilization phase of this project. The Hashoo Foundation team played a very important role in achieving the set objectives effectively and efficiently.
Mobilization play a very important role since promotes involvement in decision making. When communities become independent through honey bee farming, social gathering is expected to increase by 100%.
It is anticipated that the change in the socio-economic conditions of the beekeepers will have an impact within the community, which may in turn, lead to a greater indigenous efforts to break the shackles of marginalization, thus helping alleviate poverty in Pakistan.
Market-Based Approach
Regular monitoring field visits to the project site will be conducted by the Hashoo Foundation team to oversee the progress of the project.
Hashoo Foundation will configure the association of the newly trained beekeepers on cluster-based and registered them with the Northern Area Honey Bee keepers Association (NAHBKA); and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hussainabad Local Support Organization (HLSO) for the collection and quality assurance of the honey.
The Foundation commits to purchase all the produced honey at market-based price; and is responsible for the processing, packaging and labeling, and ensured to explore national & international market for the sale of honey.
The Foundation commits to purchase all the produced honey at market-based price; and is responsible for the processing, packaging and labeling, and ensured to explore national & international market for the sale of honey.
It is anticipated that the change in the socio-economic conditions of the beekeepers will have an impact within the community, which may in turn, lead to a greater indigenous efforts to break the shackles of marginalization, thus helping alleviate poverty in Pakistan by building sustainable enterprises with a market-based approach.
Thank you Chapelwood Foundation for making the Plan Bee Skardu project possible.
Report on Honey Bee Training "Plan Bee" in Skardu a Chapelwood Foundation and Hashoo Group Sponsored ProjectHoney Bee Farming Training "Plan Bee Skardu" Pictures
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