Support 1000 young mothers with beehives in Uganda

BUDONGO WOMEN BEE ENTERPRISES (BUWOBE) which started in 2013 as a small project for improving the livelihood of rural women bordering the Budongo forest corridor has now grown into a big enterprise scaling to other two districts of Buliisa and Hoima in the mid-western region of Uganda.

Thanks to the SEED INITIATIVE Fund and the Young Women Transform Prize 2018, of USAID managed by Making Cents International helped to actualize our concept with which we have managed to reach 2,000+ women with bee-keeping skills thanks to The Innovation Village with funding from the Mastercard Foundation Skilling project, 1,000+ beehive boxes and tools for making modern bee hives.

In 2023, ten years later the National Social Security Fund, (NSSF- Uganda) through the HI INNOVATOR PROGRAM gave a push to BUWOBE to a higher level. The grant has enabled us to acquire;

• Modern honey-processing machines
• Honey harvesting gear for the farmers.
• Facilitate certification of honey products to meet international standards.

Thanks also to The Innovation Village (TIV) through the MasterCard Foundation that enabled Safeplan Uganda to train youths in modern beekeeping between 18-35 years across Masindi and the nearby district of BULIISA.

BUWOBE LANDMARKS

1. 1,500 Youths newly trained in modern beekeeping to date courtesy of TIV
2. 500 Beehives distributed to the youth groups
3. BUWOBE honey processing factory opened at Katama village with a handling capacity of 1,000Kg per day.
4. An assortment of Beehive boxes, Bee suits, tools, honey warmer packing machines and motorcycles all procured through the High Innovator program.
5. Certification for honey products at the completion stage Hi Innovator.

CURRENT NEEDS

BUWOBE is now on the road to scale honey production for export, we need additional support in;

• Managing the collection centres to feed the honey processing factory at Katama village.
• Activities that are geared towards the protection of the pollinators and their habitats by the rural communities.
• Innovations in modern Apiary management such as Smart Bee farming technologies,
• Ensuring all trained women have at least 5 beehive boxes each.
• Searching for New markets for our cleaned honey and its bye products.
• Volunteers with technical expertise in modern bee farming such as queen breeding.

Another News! Seed Funding from The Hi-Innovator Academy.

Dear Esteemed Partners,

We send you warm greetings from the Masindi District in Uganda.

In October our enterprise Budongo Women Bee Enterprises was privileged to receive the first tranche of seed funding from the Hi Innovator Academy,

Hi-Innovator is an initiative of Uganda’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) implemented by Outbox Uganda in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The initiative is supporting small and growing businesses by extending catalytic seed funding, building the capacity of entrepreneurship support organizations to provide quality technical assistance and working with financing institutions to unlock affordable patient capital so that they can become more competitive.

Budongo Women Bee Enterprises was one of the winners for women-led and women-managed small & growing businesses with catalytic financing of $20,000, and technical assistance. The funds received will enable the enterprise;

1. Train 300 new beekeepers in 3 sub-counties of Miirya, Pakanyi and Labongo. These sub-counties were identified for 2 reasons, first because of the high rate of sugarcane growing mainly in Pakanyi second, Labongo borders the Budongo National forest reserves, and beekeeping is a better alternative for income to support the community as compared to pouching. The training was designed with the input of the community as starters in the beekeeping business.
2. Secure modem honey processing machines, more beehive boxes, packaging and storage tanks and calibrated honey refilling machine. These machines were chosen to help in simplifying and improving the quality of the honey and other products we sell in our enterprise.
3. The funds will also be used to improve and acquire more knowledge to develop our product Kamilisha Herbal Syrup (a local cough remedy developed by Budongo Women in Masindi) The herbal was originally developed with the help of Uganda Industrial Research Institute UIRI a research centre of excellence for innovating new products. This was done with the help of local ideas collected from herbalists popularly used in the community.
4. Additionally, the funds will be used to acquire another motorcycle to help in mobilizing farmers from remote areas of the district. 

Activity Progress Report

The training is ongoing in the three sub-counties, Miirya, Labongo, and Pakanyi, training youths and women on beekeeping basics, site mapping, foliage choices, site management and harvesting skills.

Since October 200 members have been trained and more than 100 new bee farmers registered as suppliers of honey in the next season. They will boost our honey collection to more than 5 tons this time round.

Modern equipment and tools have been secured, and the factory space is set up in the new premises. Additional harvesting gears, bee suites, storage tanks, honey warmers and more are some of the items funded by the Hi Innovator seed funding. These tools will increase our competitiveness by improving process flow and the quality of the product produced for sale.

We remain committed to impacting more lives and empowering women across Uganda as some members have already stated during the training.

Accept our sincere appreciation to everyone who donates and supports our initiative in all ways. 

If you've liked our work, and would like to support us, please let us know by writing to Birungi Annet (Executive Director) Safeplan Uganda E:mail: annet@safeplanuganda.org or DONATE.

Thank you,

Akena Daniel

Program Manager.

256 774 911 480

Email: akena05@safeplanuganda.org