Last year, Pollinate Energy merged with Nepalese social enterprise Empower Generation. Their missions could not align better – both empowering local entrepreneurs to serve the most marginalised communities by delivering life-changing products and meaningful employment opportunities to people living in poverty, with a strong focus on sustainability.

We were fortunate enough to have the Pollinate Energy and Empower Generation management team visit the ‘Hive’ for a Q&A panel. After a few challenging days of learning to overcome cross-cultural communication barriers and logistical setbacks, the panel was exactly the inspiration needed to get our project back on track!

Sita Adkihari, Co-Founder and Director of Empower Generation, discussed how they have empowered local Nepalese women by providing opportunities for entrepreneurship through selling products such as solar lights and sanitary pads. The organization firmly believes that women are the best investment and strongest catalyst for change, because they will invest profit into their families’ and communities’ future when given an opportunity to earn meaningful income.

I’ve seen this first-hand through Pollinate Energy’s female entrepreneurs, who are referred to as Suryamukhis (which beautifully translates to “sunflowers”), when the women are in communities forming connections with mothers and families.

One night, after a busy afternoon of slum community visits, we watched the Bollywood hit Pad Man, which tells the true story of social entrepreneur and Padma Shri recipient – Arunachalam Muruganantham. He made it his mission to create and deliver affordable, safe and sustainable sanitary pads to women living in poverty in rural India, and at the same time empowering thousands of female entrepreneurs through his distribution model. It was exciting to see the extraordinary relevance of the film to our work, particularly the very similar female distribution model adopted by Empower Generation! This is a must-watch film, complete with fantastic Bollywood tunes and moves.

I’ve often found that the people you meet when travelling are what make the experience so unforgettable, and I was so amazed by the inspiring, innovative and ambitious women I met during this fellowship. From Sita’s unequivocal passion and inspirational mission for Pollinate Energy and Empower Generation, to the local women in the slum communities who are striving to make life better for their families, to Shivani Kanodi – Pollinate’s Fellowship Manager – who brightens up every day at the ‘Hive’ with her bubbly energy and positivity. I cannot wait to see what the team achieves next for female empowerment in India and Nepal.

Read more about Amy’s work with Pollinate Energy here and learn about her colleague Jack Blackwell’s experience here.

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In late August, after a week of traveling through northern India, visiting the cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, I arrived in Lucknow for the Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program. Although I thought I had done enough research before jetting off, nothing quite prepared me for the colorful chaos.

In a short time, I experienced the beauty of traditional Indian-Mughal architecture during sunrise at the Taj Mahal; I witnessed the generosity and “guest is god” philosophy of the people as I was warmly welcomed into their homes with offerings of freshly brewed masala chai; and I discovered that road lanes and line markings were merely suggestions, adding to the madness of dodging cows, goats, chickens, camels and even elephants!

After meeting with the fellowship team and settling into our dorms at the ‘Hive’ (brace yourselves for bee-related metaphors), we familiarized ourselves with our new city through an “Amazing Race” like tour around Lucknow, where we completed challenges, tasted local delicacies and were blessed in a temple.

On the second day of the program, we visited our first slum community called Balu Adda. Known as a shanty community, meaning that homes are essentially tents made from spare material such as tarpaulin and sheet metal. It houses around 115 families who are predominantly construction workers or rag-pickers (people who rummage through refuse to salvage materials to sell).

Balu Adda is just one of 370 urban slum communities in Lucknow. Many of these slums are not connected to city grid electricity or water supply, forcing people to forego these necessities, or resort to unsafe practices and products. Families rely on harmful kerosene for lighting, drink unclean water, and cook with dirty cookstoves resulting in detrimental health consequences. Witnessing this firsthand was a sobering and eye-opening experience, and further demonstrated the importance of our contributions over the next two weeks.

My colleague Jack Blackwell, as well as Aditya Vikram Singh, a local Pollinate fellow, and I worked together to develop the strategy and impact assessment of Mobile Hives in the slum communities. Mobile Hives are set up to showcase Pollinate Energy’s solar lights, water filters and safe cookstoves to the community, whilst educating families about the social and sustainable benefits of the products, which ultimately helps to improve their standard of living.

These first few days were an overload of information and the Hive was already buzzing with ideas!

Read more about Amy’s work with Pollinate Energy here and learn about Jack’s experience here.

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