Photo on Travel Massive
Photo on Causeartist

Jazzmine Raine

Founder

Hara House

POSITION

Founder

COMPANY

Hara House

COUNTRY

India

SCENE

Social

SOCIAL

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

What makes Jazzmine Raine a Global Shaker?

Jazzmine Raine is the co-founder of Hara House, India’s first zero waste guesthouse, located in Bikaner, Rajasthan. She’s also Director of Hara World, an experiential education and impact travel organization for diverse young changemakers through environmental justice programmes.

The social enterprise uses 20% of profits to invest in community development projects. These include a youth community hub, which provides access to education resources, and social and environmental-justice education. The initiative was the runner-up for the Social Impact Award at the Women in Travel Summit’s inaugural Bessie Awards in 2019.

In a short film overview, Raine says that Hara House’s aim is to use its revenue to “bring goodness to the community.”

“We believe in bringing quality education to youth, focused on social justice, environmental action,” she continues, “providing them with a platform where they can use their voice to change the world.”

Raine adds that she’d been working in the Bikaner community since 2015 on various grassroots development projects, from waste management to women’s empowerment projects.

“And that’s what really inspired me to start this project with my business partner Manoj.” She adds. “This idea stemmed from our passions for working with youth. For bringing a platform to youth to be the change they want to see in the world. And finding a way to actually fund those programmes and those ideas in a sustainable way.

Recently, as set out in a post on the Hara World instagram page, the organisation fundraised for and then distributed a series of $100 microgrants to environmental or social impact organisations and entrepreneurs around India. The recipients included Urlong, which promotes traditional forms of farming in the tribal village of Mawlyngot in East Khasi Hills, where they run an organic farming estate. They also supported Pootling Panda, an initiative to promote community-based tourism to help travelers explore village living while providing under-privileged tribal families an opportunity to achieve self-sustainability.

“One of the best ways to fund a project like [ours] is through tourism,” Raine adds with a smile in the video overview. “India sees a lot of tourism and tourism dollars, but unfortunately, according to a study by the UNDP, for every $100 spent in a developing country, only $10 actually remains in that country. That’s a 90% tourism leakage.” She says this is the result of foreign investment, exploitation, and a lack of quality marketing for tourism projects that are dwarfed by mega chains like the Hilton.

Raine is also the Director of Content at Causeartist, a social impact lifestyle platform showcasing social innovation in travel, tech, fashion and investment. Through this network she’s also the host of the Impact India podcast — showing the stories and impact of the start-up scene in India.

She holds a diploma in special event planning from George Brown College.

Tags: India, Responsible Travel, Sustainable Tourism, zero waste

Last updated: October 2, 2020