yasmeenlari

21. Flood Blog by Ar. Yasmeen Lari - First Climate Volunteers - 15 December 2022

KARACHI

I am happy to report the visit of the first team of Climate Volunteers. On 30 November 10 students and 2 faculty members from Vienna Technical University and another 9 students and 3 faculty members from University of Lahore arrived  in Karachi.

They were taken to the Pono Hospitality village to spend 6 days in working with close collaboration with village communities.

Many activities happened during the eventful days in the midst of the flood  affected area.

Pono Hospitality village is part of the pilot consisting of 13 villages and 1,000 households that has been taken up by Heritage Foundation to demonstrate how application of BASA Barefoot Social Architecture holistic approach can transform lives of people within a short period of time and at an extraordinary low cost.

The two teams worked jointly on various aspects. While they conducted research on various aspects, they also built a school room in collaboration with the community, designed some interesting bamboo furniture for the guest cottages, and also participated in a festival that had been arranged to market barefoot goods to surrounding communities and indeed among the 13 villages themselves.

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1 million Households - Building Sustainable Communities, Immediate Recovery/Rehabilitation

Click the following link to view the PowerPoint presentation:
One Million Shelters Presentation

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Pakistan Flood 2022 - 1 million Households, Building Sustainable Communities Immediate Recovery/Rehabilitation

Heritage Foundation and the Bank of Punjab hosted a press conference at a five-star hotel, to throw light on Heritage Foundation’s endeavours for a Zero-Carbon Alternative Model to build sustainable communities and rehabilitate one million households. The media showed up in large numbers for the conference. With Arif Bahalim performing the duties of MC, the speakers included Prof. Yasmeen Lari, CEO Heritage Foundation Pakistan, Dani and Ramu from Pono Colony Village Mirpurkhas, Safeeyah Moosa, CEO Spiritual Chords/Dadabhoy Foundation and Zafar Masud, CEO Bank of Punjab.

Earthquake proof shelter training for Islamic Relief employees and community representatives from Harnai Balochistan

A 3-day extensive training was conducted at HF’s Zero Carbon Cultural Centre (ZC3), Makli. Where 7 trainees from Islamic Relief and 9 trainees from representatives of local community from Harnai, Balochistan participated. Some of them were skilled masons, therefore it was beneficial for them to learn zero carbon construction technique and add to their expertise & experience. Training was conducted by HF’s Master Trainer Mr. Naheem Shah and Senior Architect Ashfaq Ahmed. Participants were energized and thrilled at learning such valuable techniques and methods of building earthquake resilient structures using detailed step-by-step demonstrations from online video tutorials along with printed drawings and banners.

20. Flood Blog by Ar. Yasmeen Lari - Adopt a Village - Pono Cluster Completion Phase I December 2022

CAMBRIDGE, 6th November
Introduction
The Phase I defined in my earlier blog is nearing completion in 13 villages
in the Pono Cluster. This means that major development effort towards
emergency relief, recovery and rehabilitation would have been achieved in
a short of span of 12 weeks.
Beginning in September which included identifying 13 villages, getting
basic information regarding the number of households, lists of households
in each village, determining the strategy of what should comprise Phase I of
adopt a village porgramme, which would ensure that basic necessities for
living become available as well as steps for disaster preparedness.
Co building and Co creation by Communities
The work in all villages is in hand and with the collaborative arrangement
with different village communities, much progress has been made towards
transformation of their own environments.
As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, it is costing a mere Rs.
15,000/household to achieve this amazing progress.
At the same time each village has now become expert in specialized
barefoot products, some of which are being sold in surrounding areas,
among the other poor. Thus, trickle of small amounts of funds for some of
the villages is already happening. There are encouraging reports from some
villages where they are moving forward quite rapidly – the instant shelter
barefoot entrepreneur already able to afford a motorbicycle, some others
able to now get cell phones.

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19. Flood Blog by Ar. Ysmeen Lari - Climate Volunteers – Students/Others

BEGINNINGS AT UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Being with students, and to see their enthusiasm for Pakistan, has been a refreshing experience. I met a number of students on 25th October, led by Syeda Hanniya Kamran and coordinated by Dr. Rihab Khalid. We were fortunate that pro-Vice Chancellor Kamal Munir was also able to attend. The meeting was held in a committee room at West Court, Jesus College, arranged by Lucey Couch, Assistant to Master Sunita Alleyne, OBE.

The meeting had been convened by PakSoc to work out ways to help Pakistan at this juncture. Since they had been considering arranging for fund raisers to send funds for relief and rehabilitation work, and since I don’t believe in charity, I was able to share my alternate point of view.

I believe it is important to provide expression of empathy and solidarity with those who are today in a destitute state. Some funds are always useful if they are provided in a manner to help them towards path of self-reliance, but what is important is to provide opportunity to those interested to provide them to assure the communities of their support.

Among the most important aspects at this time is to provide hand holding, support and encouragement to help them rise above adversity themselves.
Link: https://bit.ly/HFClimateVolunteers

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Climate Volunteers

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18. Flood Blog by Ar. Yasmeen Lari - Pono Village Cluster Update Lachman Kohli – Pottery Village

CAMBRIDGE, 22nd October
I have begun this series in order to develop record of how various karigar villages with their specialized barefoot enterprises are moving forward. As more information is coming in it is good to know that some have begun earning small amounts through their enterprise- some of the income is from subsidized products that Heritage Foundation has supported, but some is also happening because other villages in need of affordable and low cost products.

17. Flood Blog by Ar. Yasmeen Lari - Pono Village Cluster Update

CAMBRIDGE, 21st October
I am getting regular reports from the villages and it is heartening to note how busy all villagers are in trying to improve their environment. While reports are being prepared on each village’s performance and production capabilities, it is important to discuss the results achieved in relation to the provision of shelter.

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16. Flood Blog by Ar. Yasmeen Lari: Stages of Rehabilitation 3

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