Gul Bahao

Into the 21st century with new ideas from Gul Bahao

Chandi Ghar hall attracts millions on Submarine Chowk of Clifton

For the last two weeks or so the Submarine Chowk of Clifton has been presenting a rare spectacle, the “Chandi Ghar”.  Lacs of vehicles pass by with the passengers staring in amazement at the beautiful piece of architecture glittering in the bright sunlight. The main entrance has two banners (in Urdu and English).  One carries the letters “Donate your recyclable garbage for flood affectees”

The scheme is unique. According to  Mohammad Hannan, Gul Bahao’s spokesman, Clifton being the rich man’s home throws up millions of rupees worth of waste paper, plastic ,metal everyday. if people bring these in, the money will be enough to build thousands of Chandi Ghars for the flood affectees, he said confidently. Continuing he said “If every flood affectee gets a Chandi Ghar, he will remain in his village to carry on his “Zamindari” and will not need to move into the cities and cause  overcrowding , which ultimately is the cause of tension and breakdown of the system .

The Chandi Ghar is truly a magnificent innovation “A gift from Karachi to the World” – the title of an exhibition to be held in January when foreign diplomats will be especially invited. The Chandi Ghar was not made in a single day, It took the organization 17 years and more than 8 crores, the spokesman says emphatically. Mohammad Hannan regretted that the media has given a one sided coverage of the Chandi Ghar and associated it only with waste management. The truth of the matter is that it has brought in a new technology which despite being high tech(the raw material i.e plastic is highly affordable, is highly affordable as well. It is not only useful in disaster management, once it enters the  market, new vistas will open up and “its applications will be much more than its innovators ever dreamed of “. The exhibition to be held in January will also showcase the modular nature of the wastic blocks (or building blocks) of the Chandi Ghar. The same blocks can be alternately used to make beds, sofas, swimming pools, fishponds etc.

The Chandi Ghar on Submarine Chowk has raised a good deal of interest in people from different walks of life especially people from different walks of life. More important it is helping to raise the spirits of the people who want to rise above the uncertainity and depression which has overtaken the people of this humungous city. Here it may be recalled that the City school PAF chapter has been the most enthusiastic partner providing both moral and material support for putting up the Chandi Ghar.

Kindly put your valuable 1,000 ( one thousand ) Rupees in First Women Bank, Gul Bahao account no 0007001857810001 or Allied Bank, Nargis Latif acc. no.0010032750390011( 0159 branch code –  One Unit costs Rs. 40,000 with double ceiling). You can also make your donation via western union. For information about making a donation please contact us or inform us on telephone numbers 021-32250452,0333-8869491, 0300-6628697 or through SMS.

Worlds first plastic house plant established

Today, Nargis Latif Managing Trustee of the Gul Bahao Trust while addressing the assembly of A level students of City School PAF chapter announced that Gul Bahao has succeeded in establishing the world’s first assembly plant of prefabricated housing made from plastic waste on main Rashid Minhas Road on a two thousand yards plot. Nargis claimed amidst tremendous applause that Gul Bahao has developed a totally new product through its research work which is comparable to any other innovation of the 21st century. She exhorted that we Pakisanis must rid ourselves of the inferiority complex that we are incapable of innovating. She said one of the impact of the plant will be to make a name for Pakistan as no one in the world including the developed countries has come anywhere close to designing the Chandi Ghar (Made of building blocks from plastic waste) She said that the raw material is being supplied by manufacturers free of cost and in tones which has helped to reduce the cost of the houses considerably the result is that the plant is in a position to supply hundreds of houses to flood affected areas. And now a 20’ x20’ house will cost as little as Rs 40,000. She reminded the audience that last year Gul Bahao put up a number of Chandi Ghars in the flood affected areas of Muzzafargarh and Thatta . Nargis said that in order to make a deeper impact Gul Bahao will open the doors of this vital research open to the public especially the business community so that the Chandi Ghars may be produced enmasse and large numbers of flood affectees may be benefited.

Here, the head of Gul Bahao announced the formation of the Gul Bahao Club whose objective she said is to form Research Centres in the schools. However as a first step she said students will be asked to bring in recyclable garbage like paper, plastic etc from their homes which will be a source of revenue generation for the houses to be built for the flood affectees . She said in the past the students had donated their dry garbage but only in a limited way and that now efforts would have to be increased manifold. She revealed that Karachi University and NED University have been supporting Gul Bahao’s cause by donating their recyclable waste. This she said helped the organization considerably in meeting its expenses. She exhorted the students to “donate” as much recyclable garbage as possible to Gul Bahao.

Kindly put your valuable 1,000 ( one thousand ) Rupees in First Women Bank, Gul Bahao account no 0007001857810001 or Allied Bank, Nargis Latif acc. no.0010032750390011( 0159 branch code –  One Unit costs Rs. 40,000 with double ceiling).

Key to Pakistan’s success – expanding small cities

Yesterday, Gul Bahao’s Nargis Latif addressed the senior students of City School PAF Campus. According to her Gul Bahaos innovations can easily turn the tide in Pakistan’s favor especially in the strife torn Karachi. She said that a major reason for Karachi’s turmoil is the overcrowding of the metropolis. Referring to Mao Tse Tungs China she said the key to Chinas success was moving the population from big cities to the countryside and forming new towns and cities. In any case she said that our Sindhi villagers are quite happy in their villages. It is only the floods which after destroying their houses render them penniless and they have to flee to the cities.

The managing trustee of Gul Bahao claimed that Gul Bahao’s Chandi Ghar is the ideal solution for our flood affected areas. Being prefabricated these houses can be put up in hours and dismantled just as quickly. The building blocks called wastic blocks are huge 6X17X21 and made of plastic material. They are extremely strong against the elements as well as long lasting. She explained research on this innovation cost her organization 80 million rupees and took 17 years to develop. She pointed out that it has been put up in several places and stood the test of time. Giving one example she said that Gul Bahao’s office is located in one such Chandi Ghar for the last four years and has survived cyclones and heavy downpours. She revealed that its advantage is its very low cost (between Rs.20,000-40,000) having size 20’x20’. This is because the raw material i.e plastic foil is being supplied in tonnes by big multinational companies.

Nargis revealed that recent delegations from UNDP, UNESCO and Pakistani born Britishers came to study this new innovation at Gul Bahao’s set up Gulshan-e-Iqbal. She said the organization has attracted organizations as diverse as Clinton foundation, German embassy, French nationals, CNN, Supreme Court of India etc.

Here it may be mentioned that the City school PAF Chapter has been helping the Gul Bahao organisation in its campaign for collecting funds through Garbage collection and the talk was arranged by the school for helping Gul Bahao to build houses for the flood affectees.

Kindly put your valuable 1,000 ( one thousand ) Rupees in First Women Bank, Gul Bahao account no 0007001857810001 or Allied Bank, Nargis Latif acc. no.0010032750390011( 0159 branch code –  One Unit costs Rs. 40,000 with double ceiling).

Gul Bahao CEO describes concept of the Safai/Kamai Bank to students of Newport University Karachi

Speaking to a packed audience of BBAs and MBAs at Newport University Karachi, the head of Gul Bahao trust Nargis Latif on Sunday declared that the concept of the Safai/Kamai Bank or Garbage N Gold Bank has arrived. this “Bank” in its rudimentary form is the back bone of Karachi’s economy. Describing the bank as a third world solution to first world problems she said it has attracted the attention of the world famous TV channel CNN. She said that both BBC and CNN held detailed discussions with her about it and were keen to cover it up as soon as its “Appearance livens up”. Nargis said that Karachi being the seventh largest city of the world can vie with any first world country of the world in terms of wealth and is an important factor behind Gul Bahao’s success. She revealed that Gul Bahao cashed into the free flow of money available during the Musharaf era and experimented with all kinds of material to produce goods and concepts of international significance. Using a team of 80 youths and a dozen trucks and pickup vans it went into the luxury of giving 24 carat gold to Kabarias and conducted a city wide campaign of “Kutchra Do Sona LO” to Kabarias to start the Safai/Kamai Bank. Somewhat digressing form her topic Nargis claimed that having spent crores of rupees on research (only in 2002 audited accounts revealed an expenditure of 1 crore and ten lacs for a single year), her organization has a blue print for any political party for revamping the entire economy of the country including cheap fuel for running power plants!

Going into the background of modern day innovations she said that they were in fact upgradations of traditional practices e.g. the traditional midwife has developed into an obstetrician, the grocery and provision shop has evolved into the supermarket. Tomorrows GNG (Garbage N GoldBanks) is in fact 21st century version of our Kabaria or junk dealer. Kabarias are minting money she said, despite the fact that they are totally illiterate. To the audience who were listening with rapt attention the CEO of Gul Bahao threw the question “Don’t you think education makes a difference?”, Nargis said that in order for the Kabaria to develop into a sophisticated Safai/Kamai bank its outward appearance must change. All the paraphernalia of the modern banking system like computers, air-conditioned hall etc. must be there. Most importantly,she said it must be located on main arteries of the city. Does any successful bank operate in any by lane (as in the case of Kabarias which come under the nomenclature of the informal economy, she asked once again. Nargis said,she was trying to get the academia interested in this kind of bank.

a) where the instruments of banking is recyclable industrial waste
b) which works on zero rates interest
c) whose profits are as much as that of any traditional bank
d) where always the current rate of different waste materials displayed on the notice board in the manner of money exchangers.

She said that LUMS was one University which had sought written permission from Gul Bahao for introducing the concept of the Garbage N Gold Bank in its Syllabus. It also awarded a research worker for her dissertation on this very subject i.e. the Safai/Kamai Bank. She revealed that some textbooks of secondary level have already included this and other work of Gul Bahao in their textbooks.

The speech truly fired the imagination of the audience who were all agog to know how their knowledge of business administration could be used for setting up the “bank of the future”.

Donation for flood affectees

Once again Pakistan is being devastated by floods which are wiping away peoples homes. Gul Bahao has come up with a solution. The Chandi Ghar a prefabricated house which can be put up and dismantled easily and quickly. For the last several years several Chandi Ghars have been put up in earthquake affected areas, flood affected areas and where fires have broken out. What is more Karachi’s premier factories are providing some of the raw material free of cost so that a one unit house will cost as little as 40,000 rupees. So please help!.

Kindly help us by donating. We accept payments from western union. For information about making a donation please contact us or inform us on telephone numbers 021-32250452,0333-8869491, 0300-6628697 or through SMS. ( One Unit costs Rs. 40,000 with double ceiling).