Bees abroad and smallholders (From Smallholder)

Bees abroad and smallholders

2:20pm Saturday 26th March 2011 in Bees and Honey

Claire Waring talks to Pam Gregory about the work of this small UK charity.

Pam Gregory is a self-confessed ‘self-sufficiency left-over’ from the 1970s, and she is still in love with this form of self reliance. However, out of this understanding she also came to realise that living entirely from the smallholding leaves you very vulnerable and this realisation started her off into the area of using beekeeping as a development tool.

This is her best skill and the way she has earned her living over the years. Since 1997, she has been working, mostly voluntarily, with people in developing countries to help support their beekeeping efforts.

Beekeeping may sound like a bit of a luxury, but it isn’t. When you are a subsistence farmer in a developing country there are few cushions to help you if you fall. If your crops fail then there is no possibility of visiting the local supermarket. Or you may produce enough food for the family but not enough to sell for cash – so no school fees or money for medicine. Beekeeping comes in here.

Bees produce honey, wax and propolis that can generate a significant cash income. Not only that, but these products keep, so they can be easily stored for a ‘rainy day’. Honey in the bank you might say.

This is where Bees Abroad comes in. Bees Abroad was formed as a UK beekeeping charity nearly 12 years ago with the aim of enabling people in the developing world to improve their income by becoming bee farmers.

Bee farming improves people's lives in many ways and improves the environment too. Honey is a delicious, nourishing, high calorie, digestible and popular food as well as being a valuable commodity to sell. Did you know that the honey sold from one beehive could send a child to primary school for a whole year in Cameroon or to secondary school for a whole term in Tanzania?

Secondary hive products, such as beeswax and propolis, are also valuable. Making skin creams, lotions, ointments or polish from the beeswax or medicinal propolis products, can offer even the most vulnerable people a means to make a decent living and this activity is especially suited to women’s traditional skills.

An added bonus is that bee farming also benefits people who are not beekeepers.

The bees’ pollination activity improves the quantity and quality of local crops, increasing food production for everyone in the community. Not only that but when local people realise how important trees are for beekeeping they have an added incentive to protect their forests, which helps to prevent soil erosion, protects vulnerable forest ecosystems, encourages agro-forestry and stabilises the water table.

The Bees Abroad vision of relieving poverty in the developing world is about more than just beekeeping. People joining one of its projects can learn about nutrition, health, business development, tree planting and environmental protection as well as beekeeping.

Experienced volunteers work directly with ordinary people – usually they have already formed themselves into beekeeping groups and have asked for our help. No governments, big business or expensive NGOs – just farmer to farmer.

Bees Abroad works hard with project groups to develop reliable honey markets that are so essential for profitable production and an area that is often neglected. The charity promotes and trains people in sustainable beekeeping techniques.

Participants receive training in beekeeping and hive construction using affordable materials to enable them to start up or improve their bee farms.

"We are not trying to tell people how they should carry out their beekeeping. It's much more about encouraging people and supporting their own initiatives – and there's lots of initiative out there already," says Pam, one of the eight founding trustees and one of Bees Abroad's volunteer project managers. She is currently working with beekeeping groups in Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Bees Abroad currently has projects in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Anyone interested can become a supporter for as little as £15 per year. Further information is available on www.beesabroad.org.uk, by phoning 01172 300 231 or by writing to Bees Abroad, PO Box 2058, Bristol BS35 9AF.

Bees Abroad would be thrilled if readers felt able to support its work by sending a donation to the charity in place of giving presents.

For a minimum £10 donation we will send a specially designed Bees Abroad card to your recipient to tell them of your donation on their behalf. £10 will support the trainer for a training course in Malawi for two weeks while £50 will provide a beekeeping starter kit for impoverished youngsters to prevent them drifting into the Nairobi slums. Happy beekeeping.