Women empowerment through Honeybee Farming, a project of Hashoo Foundation, being run in the Northern Areas of Pakistan for economic development for less privileged women, has been selected as one of the twelve finalists of BBC World Challenge 2008.
Each year the BBC World Challenge competition, co-sponsored by Shell Oil Company and Newsweek magazine invites organisations from around the globe to submit a development project that has been incentive, beneficial to the community and environmentally friendly.
This was announced by the Chief Executive of the Hashoo Foundation Dr Imam Baig, Advisor Zavya Mohyuddin and Sultan Mehmood at a press conference here on Wednesday. Ali Noor and Ali Hamza of Noori Band were the chief guests on this occasion.
They stated Hashoo Foundation conducted extensive assessment in the Northern Areas of Pakistan which is known for its hardship and low per capital income and responded to the need of an intervention for the poor households with a complete package of enterprise ie, from efficient production to secure sale with high revenue.
The lives of five hundred and sixty dependants of ninety women beekeepers have improved substantially as a result of this pilot intervention initiated the foundation a year ago, they said.
Under this project, it was ensured that these women have low cost of production, efficient collection nets, good bulk and unit packaging and hotels being run by Hashoo Group started buying it for its consumption as well as sale through its network. This home based source of earning enabled these women to pay for their children's school fee, books and uniform.