Mahnoor, Enterprise Challenge

Drawing on her science skills, Mahnoor – who is still at school – is breaking through barriers to pursue big change with small creatures.

Flies on rotting food are generally considered a pest and a health hazard. But fifteen-year-old Mahnoor has found an ingenious way to harness the power of fly larvae and food waste to create new products.

Appalled at the food waste she had seen in the local market, where heaps of discarded fruit and vegetables were left to rot, Mahnoor came up with a business idea to tackle the problem.

Mahnoor’s fledgeling enterprise sees her using food waste to feed black soldier fly larvae. Alongside selling the larvae from her colony as organic chicken feed, she is also experimenting with a bio-tech procedure to extract chitosan powder from their cocoons.

Chitosan is a valuable polymer that is widely used in a range of industries including pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and the market is growing fast. Mahnoor explains that chitosan is not currently available in powder form in Pakistan, so her concept is genuinely groundbreaking.

Mahnoor’s entrepreneurial endeavours were kickstarted during the Enterprise Challenge programme with our partner SEED Ventures, which equips school students with business skills and gives them the opportunity to develop and pitch their own business ideas, with a focus on initiatives with a positive social or environmental impact.

Mahnoor’s idea aims to use food waste productively to generate new sustainable income streams. But it is not only her idea that is inspiring, it is the way she has determinedly battled against discouragement and prejudice to bring it to fruition.

Over the course of the Enterprise Challenge programme Mahnoor progressed from a shy teenager to a confident and self-assured young entrepreneur and team leader. With widespread gender-based discrimination, girls in Pakistan still face many barriers to progressing in science and business fields. But keen to be a role model for her younger siblings, Mahnoor is breaking the mould and blazing a trail for others to follow. Now she and her team are progressing their business idea in real life.

‘In Pakistan, girls pursuing careers in STEM or business is uncommon…I had to convince my parents to allow me to chase my dreams and break the societal norms.’