BEE HIVES FOR RURAL FARMERS TO EDUCATE THEIR KIDS

The 1^st month of the project to bring Bee Hives to farmers in the KIRUCODO area has concluded. To date, funds have been collected (as per the attachment) which will be sufficient to construct 5 additional hives. A total of US$ 232 and 50,000/= (from Communication Without Borders who could not submit their donation online due to lack of creadit cards, etc www.communicationwithoutborders.wordpress.com) was raised through GlobalGiving platform. Fund raising continues in order that we can continue to work towards completion of the full project. We thank all those who contributed to make this possible especially the following: Ms. Royce Zeisler, Ms. Fran Thorburn, Ms. Rebecca Pouliot,  Ms. Kathryn Rowswell, Mrs. Jennifer Rowswell, Mr. Scott Rowswell and Communication Without Borders among others.

To recap the project and successes realized to date:

• In phase 1 of the project, a total of 7 hives were constructed and volunteers from New Zealand remotely assistated KIRUCODO to provide, beekeeping infoemation, basic technical skills in their care and the techniques required for harvesting the honey. These hives have been in use for 2 years now and each has yielded approximately 10 kg of honey annually. This honey has proven to be a huge benefit to the farmers who have participated in the project. Equally important is that the aggressive nature of the bees has successfully ensured that no illegal harvesting of trees has occurred in the 2-hectare woods where the hives are located.
• Phase 2 of the project saw a number of boards donated by Mr Scott Rowswell of Canada. These boards are of a type best suited to the creation of the topbars on which the bees place their combs. Only certain woods are well suited to this purpose and Mr Scott purchased enough boards for a total of 10 hives. These boards will be used to construct the hives made possible by donations on this phase of the project.

With the money raised so far in phase 3, the 5 new hives will be built and located in another wooded area near Kikandwa Village where illegal harvesting of wood for firewood wood is a problem. Each hive will become the property of one area family who will be able to use the honey and wax for their own personal consumption as well as sale in the market to raise much needed cash for essential purchases and to pay for schooling for their children.

An update to the project will be posted in December as soon as the hives are built.

Thank you to all for your help and I look forward to writing the next report and telling you of the continuing progress towards our goal of helping local farmers develop a secure standard of living.