When I was fortunate enough to travel to the Kush Mountains in Pakistan ’23, I had two main goals. The first was to experience and learn more about this incredible culture, the landscape and the history of the Kush region. The second was to figure out a way to give something back to the farmers who cultivated the plant that changed the cannabis world.

The Kush region is synonymous with the hundreds of strains bearing its name. This strain is in the parentage of many of the classic strains we consume today. And yet, unlike appellation regions like Champagne, Cheddar and Parmesan, the Kush farmers have no protection of their IP or ability to trademark or licence the name of this historical area.

So, I went with the idea of finding someone in the heart of the Kush region who could accept donations and invest them into the area. And it was with this in mind that I met Mr Afridi .

This remarkable man is an architect by trade. He works in Peshawar designing and building houses. However, his family come from the Tirah Valley, the area of Kush closely associated with cannabis farming. 

Mr Afridi set up a charity, the Iman Welfare Foundation (Facebook Page), to help the farmers in Tirah. The charity runs a school that has a particular emphasis on educating young girls, providing uniforms, food and the money required to provide an education in this harsh envirnment.

At Plantz we’ve resolved to do the following. For every product we sell with the ‘KUSH‘ name, we’ll donate a percentage of our profits towards the school.

The money is transferred via Wise directly to the Foundation’s bank account, where we can see how the money is spent on helping the Tirah farmers and their families.

Our hope is that whenever we enjoy a product bearing the ‘Kush’ name we think about the farmers who cultivated this incredible plant for decades to give us many of our favourite strains and return a little bit back in thanks.