Having grown up in Germany during World War II, Helga Ahmed is no stranger to poverty and deprivation. During her childhood years in war torn Bavaria she lived without electricity and running water and her family survived on plants they could grow in their garden, while the nearby forest provided wild berries, herbs and mushrooms. “I learnt the idea of get up and go very early in life,” she laughs, her eyes twinkling brightly. Given her feisty personality, Helga did not allow her war experiences to scar her emotionally; instead she learnt from them the important lessons of perseverance and self-help and she has used these lessons throughout her adult life.

When she married a Pakistani man and left Germany to settle in his country, she did not take on the role of the aloof memsahib; instead, she tried to involve herself in the activities of whichever community her husband was posted as a member of the Pakistan Civil Service. Over the past three decades, she has initiated a number of community based projects, from promoting traditional handicrafts, to raising awareness about the benefits of the Neem tree, to the rearing of silkworms, to spreading the use of vegetable dyes, to setting up biogas programmes in villages. Her activities have been as diverse as they have been prolific. She has travelled to almost every corner of this country, spreading awareness about the importance of protecting the natural environment.

Helga first became actively involved in community development work when her husband was posted to Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP as a Commissioner. Helga organised the local women who were making embroidered kurtas into a self-supporting group. She improved their designs, found them distributors and soon they were selling their embroidery for double the price. When her husband was posted to Quetta in 1981, Helga initiated a similar embroidery project amongst the Afghan refugee women, with initial funding of 380,000 rupees from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. This seed capital was used as a revolving fund and generated more than 11 million rupees worth of embroidery over a period of 10 years. A Swedish team on a monitoring mission to the refugee camps of Balochistan, identified this project as the only programme they had come across which trained women in middle-level management.

“It was then that I thought to myself that if I, a house-wife by profession, could do it then why couldn’t the professional NGOs in this country be more effective?” recalls Helga. “That is why I ended up becoming very critical of NGOs in this country.” Helga has a bone to pick with many of the more established NGOs and tends to express her opinions openly. She feels it is her moral duty to do this and feels very strongly about the misuse of donor money. “NGOs after all claim that they are more effective and efficient than the government, and the donor agencies believe them. But where are the signs that their activities are sustainable? I got very upset on discovering what is really going on in some of these offices.”

When her husband retired from the District Management Group of the Civil Service, he settled in Islamabad. In 1991, a group of like-minded people got together with Helga and established the Initiative for Rural and Sustainable Development (IRSD) with an office in Islamabad. The aim of this NGO is to provide a multi-disciplinary approach towards development in semi-urban and rural areas of Pakistan. The main objectives are to promote indigenous resources, increase income generation opportunities, promote traditional handicrafts and create awareness about protecting the environment. The IRSD operates at the grass-roots level and draws upon the technical expertise of a number of people in the public and private sectors.

“When my husband retired, I wanted to occupy myself, and working in the rural areas outside Islamabad provides me with a good outlet for my energy,” explains Helga. Her grown up children are all married or living abroad, so she has plenty of free time. Helga has a small Suzuki pick-up which she uses for her field work and she drives it herself to visit the villages outside the capital in the Potowar area, where she has almost single-handedly initiated development projects. The Potohar region lies south of the Margalla Hills in the province of Punjab.

When she approached UNDP for financial support for development work in rural areas she initially suggested work in Southern Punjab. For three years, Helga and UNDP continued a dialogue about where and how she would undertake field work. Finally, the GEF/SGP programme staff managed to convince her that she would be wise to work in an area that is close to her home while remaining rural in its character. Fayyaz Baqir, the National Coordinator of the GEF/SGP recalls how it took a while for them to agree that “their difference of opinion was not an opposition to her leadership potential.” In his view, the choice of the Potowar region and its proximity to Islamabad where Helga resides has been fortunate. With her frequent field visits, Helga has become an 'insider' with the community where she works which has brought out her personal qualities in leading village women to change.

In the last six years, the IRSD has successfully installed 40 biogas units in several villages in the rural areas outside the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. biogas projects have typically not done well in Pakistan although they are thriving in India, Nepal, China, Africa and South America. The main reasons for their failure in Pakistan have been the lack of proper site identification, no training component for the beneficiaries, no supervisory activities and lack of specialised masons. IRSD’s interest in biogas evolved when Helga realised that her efforts to promote environmentally friendly income generating activities like vegetable dyeing and silk yarn reeling for female artisans was being hampered by lack of access to easy and cheap fuel. biogas was soon identified as the most effective and beneficial renewable energy resource.

IRSD took it upon itself to prove that biogas digesters are workable amongst the rural population of Pakistan. Initially, small donations enabled Helga to install biogas digesters close to Islamabad which allowed her to easily supervise and monitor the project. Soon, she had secured funding from the UNDP’s Global Environment Facility/Small Grants Programme, which allowed her to expand the project by installing 14 biogas units in as many households in the village of Maira Khurd near Islamabad. The benefits of biogas to a rural woman and a child are considerable, while from the environmental aspect the long-term benefits are incalculable. Helga estimates that a typical rural family uses a minimum of 10-20 kilogram of wood per day to meet their fuel needs. Since a biogas unit needs only buffalo dung and water as raw materials, one can imagine just how many trees are saved by the installation of just one biogas digester in one household. “The village women would spend entire days collecting thorny branches from distant forests. Now, with a biogas digester in their house they don’t need to venture out and they can spend the time looking after their homes and children,” says Helga.

When she is visiting her projects, Helga is like a one-woman health clinic. She gives advice on birth control, pregnancy, hygiene and the use of vitamins and local herbs all in Urdu, a language she has learnt to speak. Over the years, through her own research and her contacts with both village women and scientific experts, Helga has gathered a storehouse of information about local herbs and plants. The villagers listen to her advice with a sheepish smile; they know she is right and has good intentions, yet they feel a bit embarrassed at her directness and lack of formality. Helga, who hails from Southern Germany and is of Celtic stock, does not mince words and lets people know exactly what she thinks of them. “Bavarian Germans are not exactly known for their diplomacy,” she laughs.

She never loses an opportunity to inform others of her environmental concerns. Three years ago, while trying to photograph vanishing forests at 10,000 feet up in the Northern Areas, she fractured one ankle and badly sprained the other. She had to be carried down the mountain by a local villager. During the three-hour trek, she forgot about her pain when she realised that the villager’s woolen sweater was drenched with pesticide spray. “I could smell the chemicals in his sweater, which he probably wore day in and day out, not realising how harmful this could be. I immediately forgot about my ankle and started giving him a lecture about the harmful effects of pesticide use in his terraced fields and identified the local herb he should use instead!” Helga has been all over the Northern Areas and is very concerned about the spread of tuberculosis in the mountainous region, as well as the harmful effect of the contaminated water used for home consumption. “The so-called fresh water from the springs in the foothills of the Himalayas is nothing but clear sewerage water, while the open water channels of the higher regions have become the dumping ground for domestic waste waters and toxic agricultural chemicals. I have seen equipment used for spraying potato fields cleaned in these channels at one end, while at the other that very same water is used to wash children. Kettles used to prepare tea are also dipped in these waters. Since the water is never boiled enough to destroy all the bacteria, this has caused many a death in the mountains.”

Back in the Potohar, Helga is continuing her advocacy of biogas digesters. She points out that the advantages of the biogas digesters are manifold. The methane gas that is produced by the fermentation process is a non-hazardous and environmentally friendly fuel. In some of the households, the biogas digesters have been expanded by an additional unit, which provides gas-light to the courtyard, which burns throughout the night. The biogas project safeguards hygienic living conditions as health hazards caused by animal waste lying in the open are neutralised. The slurry gained through the fermentation process can be used to improve the physical characteristics of the agricultural soil as it is rich in humus. Additionally, the slurry helps to prevent the spread of weeds as the fermentation process in the bio-digester destroys the germination potency of the weed seeds that the free-grazing livestock feeds on. The use of the slurry in the soil also prevents the contamination of the groundwater as pathogens and bacteria are destroyed.

Helga is adamant that animal manure must be looked upon as a renewable energy resource that needs to be promoted on a priority basis. She points out that today Pakistan is losing 100,000 acres of irrigated agricultural land every year to water-logging and salinity. Sustainable agricultural practices require a balanced input of organic and chemical fertiliser – unfortunately, many Pakistani farmers rely too heavily on fertilisers and pesticides which are contaminating the soil and water and causing diseases like cancer. She has formed a pressure group that is advocating to the government an organic methodology to farming.

She is also campaigning fervently against the Eucalyptus tree that is to be found everywhere in the Punjab. Helga wants Eucalyptus trees to be replaced with indigenous varieties that are more beneficial to the environment. She explains in an article she wrote for a local newspaper entitled ‘The Insatiable Appetite of the Eucalyptus’: During the Ayub Khan era emphasis was placed on rapid afforestation. Free grazing of livestock was banned and the impounding of four legged culprits was punishment enough for the villagers to ensure the protection of new plantations. Natural vegetation of indigenous plants soon covered the heavily eroded hills of the Potowar Plains while the low-lying areas suddenly had enough water to grow crops. But this was not enough. Some brilliant mind discovered the Eucalyptus tree and from north to south, we now see it flourishing everywhere. Since it is no trouble to raise, as livestock is not tempted to forage through it, nor does it require maintenance, it has become the forest department’s pet plant… No thought in Pakistan has ever been given to why this tree is today internationally acknowledged as a greedy drinker.

Helga points out that the planting of indigenous trees should be encouraged as they are most suited to the environment. She explains: “Bakain (or Indian Lilac), besides giving a perfect shade, has considerable economic benefits: its wood is termite resistant and in high demand for door frames. The Acacia varieties have proven to flourish even under drought condition. Ber, Kachnar, Jamun all are multi-purpose trees for the rain-fed areas, besides having considerable medicinal benefits.” She is also educating farmers about the use of Neem oil as a natural pesticide. “The Neem tree grows abundantly in Sindh; in fact, multi-national companies actually buy its seeds in Sindh at dirt cheap prices and make pesticide out of it to sell to Western farmers at a huge profit. Unfortunately, no one here appreciates its value. We need to educate people about its benefits.” Helga has traveled all over Sindh, making lasting friendships with grassroots activists. She was instrumental in getting Swiss funding for a Sindhi NGO based in Thatta called Sik Preet more than twenty years ago. Sik Preet works in far-flung rural areas and has been instrumental in empowering women in the region by educating their menfolk about the importance of treating women respectfully.

Recently, Helga was appointed as Member of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Environment. She is all set to bring about a change in government policy through her determined advocacy. Her indefatigable spirit comes from the deep belief inculcated in her during her childhood years in war torn Germany, that sheer hard work and reliance on sustainable methods of earning livelihoods can build communities and nations. She has seen her own devastated homeland build itself into an economic powerhouse, and it gives her hope for a developing country like Pakistan.

– Written by Rina Saeed Khan