“Are Citizens of the World Succeeding in Lessening Global Poverty?”

Discuss some innovative practices that have been particularly effective in reducing or

eliminating poverty in some regions. Do they show any promise as a model for implementation

elsewhere? Are they promising on a global scale?

A SWEET SOLUTION TO POVERTY

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a

lifetime. -Chinese Proverb

It was a cold morning in a faraway country called Pakistan. Azim had woken up, in his

small tent, wondering if he and his mother were going to be able to sell any of the honey they

had produced. His mother Jamila had been producing honey for the past four years to help meet

the needs of her family. Azim and Jamila had been walking on the streets going door to door to

sell the cans of honey they had in their hands. Azim was hungry and cold but his mother was not

able to afford food or a jacket for him to wear. Once again they had returned to their tent, which

barely kept the cold outside. Azim and his mother had not been eating anything nutritious for the

past two days, only half a teaspoon of the honey they tried selling. Azim begged for more honey,

but Mother Jamila was helpless to aid her son, hoping that she could sell the honey the next day.

Azim had never been to a normal school before; it was the least of their concerns among the

other things they lacked.

Azim is not alone in his position though. He is one of the one billion children that are in

poverty (Shah, 2014). According to United Nations Office for Partnership (2014) “more than one

billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day and in total, 2.6 billion struggle to

survive on less than two dollars per day”. This is the definition of poverty in absolute terms-

surviving on less than US$1 a day (Chen, & Ravallion, 2007). Making this picture even worse is

that “22,000 children die each day because of poverty” (Shah, 2010).They die quietly in some of

the poorest villages of the world far away from the crowds and the festive lives of those who

enjoy their wealth. They live weakly and die in silence without their lives even being

acknowledged by many. It is unfortunate that their tragedy is not noticed. This is strange because

if we imagine a natural disaster happening in one part of the world where 22.000 people die, we

would expect others around them try to help the survivors rather than doing nothing but watch

them.

Hashoo Foundation has the honor of being among those that hear the voice of the weak

and use all their resources to help people in need and bring hope to the children. The story of

Hashoo Foundation began in 1988 to address social welfare needs of poor and disadvantaged

communities in Pakistan. Having “enabling and empowering communities to be independent by

facilitating equitable access to opportunities” as its mission, Hashoo Foundation is now a well-

established and respected non-governmental organization (NGO) with international chapters in

the USA and UK. The Foundation’s current foci are Economic Development, Skills

Development, Education and Humanitarian Assistance and Relief. The foundation sponsors 26

different corporations in Pakistan which include: ten schools, three basic health centers, three

honey bee farming projects, one expanded dairy development project, three human development

resource centers, three youth development centers, and three marble shine associations. These

corporations help educate children that are in need, help women earn money, and help the

Pakistani community with food resources (“Economic Development”, n.d.).

One of the most innovative projects of the foundation is the Honey Bee Farming Project

– Plan Bee that started in 2007 in the province of Gilgit, in the northern region of Pakistan. In

early 2007, a woman named Sarah Hashwani saw some women walking on the streets of one of

the poorest and most isolated regions in the country. Watching these women go door to door, her

interest was aroused. As the Chairperson member of the Hashoo Foundation, Ms. Sarah

Hashwani looked into the situation and learned that these particular women were selling honey to

their neighbors. Furthermore, Ms. Hashwani found these women were selling honey 35%

cheaper than the men in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, living in a male dominated

community, these women were not much seen or heard and paid much less than men. She began

to talk to the women honey sellers and helped them to become involved in the Honey Bee

Project that is based on a system of social barter and aims to empower women and the

local communities. Hashoo Foundation agrees to buy the women beekeepers' honey at market

price and successfully links them to the lucrative markets in Pakistan, provided that the families

agree to send their children to quality schools, have regular health check-ups, and improve

nutrition at home.  (“The Women Empowerment”, 2014). Thanks to this program, many kids like

Azim have been rescued from the conditions that no child on earth deserves to endure.

As Cristal Montañéz Baylor, Executive Director chairperson of the U.S. chapter of the

Hashoo Foundation USA, explained, currently the project Plan Bee has trained 949 women in

honey bee farming. This training, which is done in the local languages, covers all aspects of the

beekeeping, such as beehive management, the extraction process, hygienic packaging,

transporting of beehives, as well as the logistics and marketing required. By providing this

training Hashoo Foundation formed a chain of the micro entrepreneurs that produced 31,000 kg

(68,343 lb.) of honey from 3,089 beehives .The Women’s Empowerment through Honey Bee

Farming Project Plan Bee, has expanded employment opportunities through the sale of high-

quality honey in Northern Pakistan, and has helped address the discrepancy between the income

earned by male and female beekeepers. They have accomplished this by educating the women in

beekeeping and linking them to profitable markets as micro entrepreneurs (C. Montañéz Baylor,

personal communication, December 7, 2014). By doing this, Hashoo Foundation has taken a

very valuable action in a country like Pakistan where microenterprises contribute significantly to

social stability and equity. In addition, the Foundation has played a critical role in economic

growth of the region by providing one of the most important vehicles to assist low-income

people’s escape from poverty. (Financial Sector of the World Bank Group, 2000.) The

statements of Jamila, a beneficiary of the Project “Plan Bee” from Hunza, depicts how these

findings became reality:

“Due to Hashoo Foundation’s interventions, I was assured a good selling price

and a steady income. It has encouraged me to do better. The training helped me improve

the quality of the honey produce. The increased income has helped the education and

nutritional needs of my young ones.” (Annual Report 2011-12, 2012).

One of the very significant aspects of the Honey Bee Project that should be analyzed and

emphasized is its contracting with parents to send their children to school in return for

purchasing the honey they produced. Orazem (2012) argues that from the research he conducted,

ensuring students’ attendance in school has not only brought positive schooling outcomes but it

has also lowered the poverty rate, improved the nutritional status of poor households, and

increased the proportion of children receiving vaccinations and other health services. Therefore,

by encouraging parents to make the investment in their child’s schooling, Hashoo Foundation

helps to break the cycle of poverty that “causes lifelong damage to children’s minds and bodies”

(UNICEF, 2000).

Another strategy of Hashoo Foundation that contributes to its long term approach in

breaking the poverty cycle is the continual supply of financing to meet the needs of people in the

region rather than providing them with short term aids. To specify, starting from focusing on

individual beneficiaries, the Plan Bee program has set up associations to collectively manage the

production and marketing of the honey at better prices as well as reducing some of the risks and

challenges involved in such an enterprise. In order to ensure the program’s sustainability, the

groups are further linked with well-recognized, registered and formal setups and local support

organizations. To exemplify, the Project, having won the prestigious BBC World Challenge

2008 has been successful in broadening the beneficiaries’ base by attracting small and medium

level funding from local and overseas donors, including but not limited to SGAFP of USAID,

Wal-Mart Foundation and Chapelwood Foundation. The IFC (2004) notes, “Well-managed

microfinance institutions have convincingly demonstrated that they can become profitable and

sustainable institutions while making major contributions to poverty reduction by increasing

economic opportunities and employment.”

Just as important as helping women and children out of poverty, the Hashoo Foundation

has done more. The Honey Bee Project helped address the problem of gender inequality in

Pakistan and it did so within cultural norms. One of the few areas that men do deem acceptable

for women to work in is beekeeping. The Hashoo Foundation took advantage of the positive

conditions in northern Pakistan to capitalize on local resources, building on what is achievable as

well as culturally and socially acceptable. Women were able to become small entrepreneurs who

could own a sustainable business by selling high quality honey. The critical importance of this

initiative can be better understood and appreciated when the following fact is considered:

“Women make up half the world's population and yet represent a staggering 70% of the world's

poor.” Furthermore, “Women make up 70% of the world's working hours and earn only 10% of

the world's income and half of what men earn” (“Is Empowering Women”, 2013). This translates

to greater poverty, slower economic growth and a lower standard of living. Therefore,

empowering women who live in miserable conditions and face huge inequalities and injustice

from birth to death has critical meaning for tackling poverty and improving prospects for women

and, in turn, their children. The World Bank believes that “putting resources into poor women's

hands while promoting gender equality in the household and in society results in large

development payoffs” (“Promote Gender Equality”,n.d.).

By helping improve the quality of life and ensuring the children have access to education

and safer, happier and healthier futures, Plan Bee Project reminds people that committed

individuals and organizations can play a very critical role in pioneering new ways of reducing

poverty and enhancing social justice. The key to the success of the program is that they do not

seek to make the poor wealthy, but instead help them find work that is productive and

sustainable. Many other countries where poverty is a major concern could benefit from the

projects like Plan Bee. Governments or non-profit organizations can replicate this sustainable

social-business model by expanding employment opportunities and generating a stable source of

income through the resources available in the region and can help provide a solution to the

poverty problem on a global scale. Hashoo Foundation started the project in the northern region

of Pakistan, an area with good climatic conditions and an abundance of flora for the production

of honey. By providing organizational support, the project enabled the women to overcome

physical, social and cultural barriers and help them profit from a job field that was not new to

them. In the many corners of the world , where people struggle with poverty, there could be

programs that encourage local people to use their resources more effectively and help reduce

poverty in a sustainable way

For example, in some parts of Africa people have goats and they try to sell the

milk or dairy products. However, they are not as profitable as they could because they are not

using the most effective techniques and are not linked with a large scale market. Also many of

the people might have one or two goats which is not enough for mass production. The project

could provide the loans needed in order for the workers to sell their milk and other dairy

products using mass production technology. To ensure that the quality of the products is

consistent, the beneficiaries would be provided with follow up and technical assistance. The

program can also be strengthened by developing partnerships with community based

organizations, local and international non-governmental organizations, microfinance institutions

and banks to help increase their annual income and provide them and their dependents with

access to quality standards of living.

The Honey Bee Project is still going strong years later. A great flood in Pakistan

destroyed the project in 2010-2011, but school children grades 10 through 12 were able to

rebuild the villages and get the project back on track. (C. Montañéz Baylor, personal

communication, December 7, 2014).In fact the success rate speaks for itself. Beekeepers spend

around 60% of their income from honey bee farming on education of their children, 10% on

better nutrition for their families and 30% on healthcare expenses. It has not only made positive

changes in the women's lifestyles, but now they also have sustainable income to help support

their families, resulting in a 32% increase in their average household income from the sale of

honey. Thanks to the Hashoo Foundation more than 1200 children are able to attend schools.

“Plan Bee” also gained international recognition. Out of 1200 projects submitted, Plan Bee was

one of the four featured commitments of the Clinton Global Initiative 2008 annual meeting, as a

model of poverty alleviation (Guzman, 2012).

After overcoming a lot of challenges trying to sell her one kilogram honey at a very low

price in the cold streets of Gilgit eight years ago, Jamila is now fully established in the honey bee

keeping business thanks to Hashoo Foundation’s interventions and support. She has also

developed a fruit nursery out of the savings from honey income to generate more business

opportunities. Likewise, having no jacket or shoes to keep him warm while accompanying his

mom in her desperate attempts to sell their honey, now as a teenager, Azim is going to a quality

middle school and dreaming of being a doctor. He would like to serve as an example of hope to

the children who may be experiencing a miserable life as he did and help them attain good

standard of living and dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others. Both of them are thankful to

Hashoo Foundation for giving them a passport to a better future and for serving as a model for

ending inequality of opportunity and serving the best interest of all humanity.  

Eren Okumus Winner Gluen Institute Essay Contest Texas Excellence Award 2015

Youth Platform Essay Texas Excellence Award http://gulenyouthplatform.org/new/youth-platform-2015-winners/

References

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