We can’t eat banknotes; we need to think about the environment

During the TEDx event held in Hadish Mall on September 1, IDEA had the opportunity to have a conversation with one of the speakers of this event. In this event, Mohammad Loqmanian hosted his guests, Ms. Roxana Motamedi, Mansour Zandi Nahad, Mohammad Mehdi Pourbassir, and Sara Shahrokhi were invited to the stage. The discussions of one of the guests in the field of microfinance caught the attention of our news agency. We had a conversation in this regard with Ms. Sara Shahrokhi, and reading it is worth your while.

Hello, please start by introducing yourself so that our audience can get to know you better:

Hello, I’m Sara Shahrokhi, the founder and chair of the board of the non-governmental organization IFA and also serving as the CEO of the Zeema Company. At Zeema, a significant part of our activities involves investing and assisting in capital acquisition for startups and small businesses operating in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Why did you choose the topics of the environment and employment in rural areas for your presentation?

In the past six years, I have been professionally engaged in the field of social responsibility, and I was invited to speak on various programs in this area. However, I never had the belief and confidence in this work as much as I do now. Today, I have reached the conviction that our approach is effective, and I want to promote this approach so that everyone can see that change is possible. We have faced difficulties and made mistakes ourselves, and we have reached a roadmap that I want to share with everyone.”

why did you choose microfinance and investing in social businesses? Why didn’t you use other models of social responsibility?

As I mentioned in my speech, there are four different models and approaches for the private sector in the field of social responsibility. Usually, the private sector either donates large sums of money to charities or takes actions that don’t have a sustainable impact on poverty reduction. These actions often serve merely as a resume filler for companies. I started my journey by researching activities that have been effective in reducing poverty worldwide for decades. The results of all these researches led to two methods: microfinancing, which has proven to be very effective, and investing in social businesses.

When I started in this field, I was younger and didn’t have the capacity to invest in social businesses. Therefore, I began with microfinancing, as I had the expertise and a background in financial management due to my studies. I could assist people living in rural areas in starting their businesses and generating income. Now, after six years, we have gained expertise in this field, and our financial capabilities have grown stronger. We have entered the second phase of our mission, which involves investing in social businesses to further reduce poverty. In our view, social businesses are those that can provide products or services that address societal issues, such as air pollution, water scarcity, clean energy, and more.

The main reason for my talk today was to emphasize that the elite and young generation of our country are either thinking or engaging in businesses that aim to generate huge profits in a short period. However, if this generation focuses on utilizing their intelligence to address the issues at the bottom of the societal pyramid, they can still achieve significant income while making a positive impact on society. I recently received an invitation from the Jahad-e Agriculture University to be a guest speaker and talk to students about this topic. When I saw that their student association had raised 420 million Tomans for the Bread and Cheese campaign this year to provide food for 300 families, I decided to address the students and tell them that the young generation’s job is to create value and use their creativity to solve the nation’s problems. They don’t have to be any different from my grandfather; he may not have any other abilities, but you, as students, also have abilities. I never wanted to come and talk about these issues, but this year, I decided to come and tell people that social businesses can be established, problems can be solved, and profits can be made without harming the environment. We can eat bread without harming the environment and improve the lives of others. We just need to understand that individual benefit should align with collective benefit.

You are very insistent that young people play a significant role. How do you support young people, and what is your collaboration with them like? In which sectors do you assist businesses in the social field?

The main reason behind establishing Zeema is that we have 25 million rural inhabitants, and the educated generation needs to understand that this market is a very untapped and vast one. In this regard, we can introduce customers to products like those produced in agriculture, which require fewer pesticides and fertilizers. We have the capability to connect these businesses with local communities. Young educated individuals often lack the ability to establish these local connections, and we can bridge that gap. Through these connections, we can create markets for such businesses in the local sector and even pilot their projects.

One of the tasks we have set for ourselves this year is to reach out to student associations in various universities to encourage students to engage in rural areas. If there is a civil engineering association, for example, even producing a toilet for a village is an important task that can be accomplished. This would help minimize the gap between the educated population and the rural areas. By doing so, the young generation can become familiar with the primary issues in these areas. I believe this needs to happen so that our educated youth can use their creativity and innovation to address the local community’s needs and benefit from it. In any case, whether through IFA (a branch of our organization) or by presenting a viable project, we can assist them in attracting investment.

Do you focus solely on the private sector, or do you also receive assistance from the government? Have you had any experience in seeking help from the government or not?

We organized a public petition for the annual floods that occur in the southwestern region of Kerman because these floods were causing significant livestock losses. We initially provided livestock loans to start with a small number of goats, and when they reached around 11 goats, floods would happen again, causing them to lose everything. We realized that this approach was not sustainable, so we reached out to various authorities, including the governor’s office, the presidency, and the office of the Supreme Leader, along with the 17,000 signatures we had collected. Eventually, our efforts bore fruit, and we managed to prevent the anticipated flood for that year, which authorities had described as the worst in the region’s history.

For this endeavor, we sought help from large mines in the region for their social responsibility. Each mine contributed to resolving this issue, and the presidential office sent letters to these mines as well. We managed to secure 10 bulldozers from a copper mine, along with a budget of 10 billion rials collected from other mines to help prevent the flood.

I remember that when we initially started gathering signatures, many people were skeptical, saying that collecting a signature wouldn’t achieve anything and other discouraging remarks. However, we didn’t lose hope, and we persisted until we achieved our goal. The key to success in these endeavors is perseverance, and we are relentless in our pursuit of positive change. To have a nationwide impact, we cannot do it without government assistance because certain activities, permits, and other factors are beyond the capacity of the private sector, and we need government cooperation.

A final word for our audience?

We are the last generation that can save Iran’s environment from irreversible destruction. We cannot eat money, and without water, we cannot survive, and we cannot breathe if we let air pollution worsen. We must invest our own assets in addressing these issues. Therefore, we must lead in sharing knowledge and not allow the situation to reach a point of no return. No one but ourselves can help us in this endeavor.