EACO interventions focus on poverty reduction and address the effects of HIV/AIDS. A majority of vulnerable women, particularly widows and those living with HIV/AIDS, as well as vulnerable children, youth, and the elderly in rural mukono have limited to no opportunities to participate in decisions concerning their well being because of their vulnerability (usually poverty and gender) or their age. As a result of the lack of sources of income, they are unable to meet their most basic needs.
In Mukono, women bear almost all responsibility for meeting basic needs of the family, yet are systematically denied the resources, information and freedom of action they need to fulfill this responsibility. The vast majority of the poor in Mukono are women. Two-thirds of the illiterates are female. Of the millions of school age children not in school, the majority are girls. And today, HIV/AIDS is rapidly becoming a woman's disease. Training them in bee-keeping could change these trends.
The project that EACO wants to set out to initiate is a sustainable approach to assisting the growth of the Uganda honey bee industry. The project would teach women to construct their own honey bee hives and to produce their own protective head veils and clothing, tools, and hive smokers. It is a project that would work with people who have very little resources.
This project will enable 200 women to engage in Bee-keeping. The ability to increase their income and invest in their families and communities which will then help to improve their families' health and well-being.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
