Gul Bahao

Into the 21st century with new ideas from Gul Bahao

Solutions to environmental problems – lecture at Goethe institute

Yesterday, Gul Bahao’s Nargis Latif was invited to address a gathering of students at the Goethe Institute. The event was organized by the Children’s museum for Peace and Human Rights to high light the causes behind natural disasters especially in the current situation prevailing in the country.

Nargis Latif in her detailed speech said that Gul Bahao during its 16 years of existence has been giving solutions to seemingly intractable environmental problems. It has invariably linked the environment with economy. It has never indulged in breast beating about pollution levels about the destruction of the planet. It has always shown how we can have development and industry side by side with a clean environment. For instance dry recyclable waste may be collected in bins in such an organized manner that nothing remains to pollute and instead the industry and agriculture would gain through easy and cheap access to raw material.

She said that if we use paper bags instead of shopping bags we will be encouraging deforestation which will lead to large scale flooding. Nargis dwelt on a variety of topics ranging from factory effluents, to use of organic waste as fodder to the use of plastic waste in the use of building blocks (remember Chandi Ghar) is an innovation of Gul Bahao. She said that a sensible waste management system including recycling would go a long way in controlling desertification, deforestation and pollution of natural resources.

There was an intense interaction between the head of Gul Bahao and the participants of the seminar. Students wanted to know how they could help Gul Bahao. Citing the example of Al Noor School in Gul- shan e Iqbal, she said they asked their students to collect recyclable garbage from their friends, relations, neighbors on one particular day. After separation and weighing, it value was calculated at a little over nine thousand rupees. This was a donation from the school to the NGO (Gul Bahao). Nargis revealed that some other educational institutions including few universities have started donating their recyclable garbage to Gul Bahao. Referring to the devastation caused by the floods, Nargis suggested plan of action. According to her more than Rs 3 crore worth of waste is being thrown into the dumps of Karachi every day.

Even if a fraction of this is collected in an organized manner it could help in the relief and rehabilitation of the flood affectees. Nargis said that Gul Bahao during its 16 years of existence has gained ample expertise in this matter and has sold more than eight crores rupees worth of garbage so far.

In the meantime Nargis has appealed to all institutions banks, factories and others and even NGOs to use their recyclable waste for raising funds for the national calamity taking place in the country. Gul Bahao will send its transport and staff to collect the recyclable garbage.

Culture and Tourism Department Sindh sponsors Gul Bahao’s Busti Benazir exhibition

“BUSTI Benazir” a unique exhibition was held for two days at the Gul Bahao Complex located in Gulshan-e- Iqbal on Sunday and Monday. PPP’s General Secretary for Sindh, Mr. Taj Haider was the Chief Guest at the event which was sponsored by the Culture and Tourism Department Sindh.

The exhibition was a combination of the scientific and the cultural. The open air exhibition presented a lively scene of bright colors and popular songs of the Peoples Party especially very moving songs about Benazir Bhutto

From time to time people were exhorted on the sound system to study the different innovations of Gul Bahao. (One of the speakers later on commented that it was sheer laziness on the part of the people that they have not responded as well as they should have to Gul Bhao’s innovations). On the other hand several instances were given of people having used the Paaki Paani and recovered from illnesses. Others are regularly using this technique as a water purifying method

The centre of attraction however was the Chandi Ghar a prefabricated house which lived upto its name every bit . Its spectacular beauty elicited a remark from a visitor Why! it is fit for the king …may be king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia .

Another major aspect of the exhibition was the Safai/Kamai Bank which according to Nargis Latif, (head, of the organization ) ‘‘is a modern day up gradation of the Kabaria where the instrument of banking is dry garbage’’.

The Chief Guest was taken around the exhibition. Deeply impressed with all that he saw he remarked that instead of looking to the government for jobs all the time people can earn their living through the different schemes devised by Gul Bahao.

A Government Official who had come to see the exhibition said that his Department is seriously looking in to adopting the model of the Chandi Ghar for the low income groups.

A delegation of the Agha Khan Community Development Department evinced keen interest in the prefabricated system and said they intend to have their workers trained in this new technology.

In the public meeting that was held later on, it was announced that A Busti Benazir exhibition cum seminar would be held twice a year on the occasions of the birth and death anniversaries of l the late Prime Minister Benazir.

Gul Bahao exhibition announcement – Busti Benazir

Gul Bahao in a statement has announced holding of an exhibition called “Busti Benazir” on Sunday and Monday, the 3rd and 4th of January 2010. The exhibition will be portraying a new concept of “urban dwelling”. It is meant to give a glimpse of what urban areas in Sindh will start looking in the near future. “Chandi Ghar” (alternate housing), fuel pack (fuel for running power plants), “Choora Chara” (fodder for animals), “Safai/Kamai” Bank, a new kind of a bank, “Paaki Pani” (water purifying method) are the innovations which will completely change the lives of the people. These are the result of 16 years of research and an expenditure of more than 8 crores of rupees.

These innovations did not spring into being all at once, several young men trained as artisans worked on different aspects of the innovations, refining them from time to time. For months, seventy young men and more than a dozen trucks and Suzukis used to go all over Karachi, including the Export Processing Zone and collected tones of waste material. Millions of rupees were collected as loans and donations from hundreds of Karachittes to finance these activities, accounting for 30-40% of the total expenses while more than 60% of the expenses were covered through sale of waste material.

Busti Benazir Exhibition

Gul Bahao’s two day exhibition called Busti Benazir on the occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s birthday ended on the 22nd of June. The program was jointly sponsored by the Culture and Tourism Department Sindh as well as Pakistan Steel Mills. Consisting mainly of Gul Bahao’s innovations the exhibition was a rare spectacle and enjoyed tremendously by the man in the street. The organisation had invited a group of talented folk singers who enthralled the audience with their original songs dedicated to Benazir. The venue was the area opposite Sindbad below the NIPA Bridge at about 6 pm, the sun was shining brightly on a riot of colors, shimmering silver and gold, pink, bright yellow, red and green. A soul-searing song on Benazir was being rendered while hundreds of coaches and buses carrying jam-packed passengers was slowly making its way on the over-head bridge, the passengers also acting as audience; it was a rare scene.

The exhibition was a combination of the scientific and the cultural. In between the songs the audience were being exhorted to study and use the different discoveries and innovations of Gul Bahao namely Chandi Ghar and Paki Pani. One of the speakers said that Paki Pani being a water purification method not only prevents most water-borne diseases but also cures them. Poor people, he said, would be greatly helped if their health improves. A swimming pool made from wastic blocks, an innovation of Gul Bahao, was shown filled with water. A 12 X 15 foot “Chandi Ghar” was shown looking every bit a “Chandi Ghar”.

Summing up the two-day exhibition, Nargis Latif said that Gul Bahao takes its inspiration from the martyrdom of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who dreamed of a prosperous Pakistan. In one of her addresses to the audiences, Nargis Latif declared that ” Busti Benazir” is now another name for the research-cum exhibition centre which houses all the innovations of Gul Bahao Trust.