Empower 200 Cameroonian Refugee Women inBeekeeping

The month of August, 2022 has been very challenging for the women beekeepers in Ikom, Cross River State, Nigeria. 

Around August 15, heavy rains flooded the Ikom area, and washed away over 15 colonoized beehives. This was very devastating to the moral of the beekeepers who were eagerly waiting to conduct their first harvest aound December. 

Other refugees who had placed over 40 hives in the Bashua area are still very hopeful that their hives will colonize. As of the writing of this report, only 3 beehives have colonized in Bashua, Cross River State Nigeria. 

We will continue to update donors on the progress of the work. 

We sincerely thank the donors who continue to assist the vulnerable refugees in learning how to keep bees to be able to support their families.

From Feb. 22-25, 2022 in Ikom, Nigeria, Winrock International under the John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program, Assignment Number: NIG461.L/R assisted Amba Farmers Voice with a Volunteer Master Beekeeper, Ms. Nathalie Biggie from Bee Mindful (http://www.bee-mindful.com/) to train the refugees in beekeeping. 

Due to Covid 19 travel restrictions, the Masterkeeper could not travel to Nigeria. The training was conducted via zoom.  Nevertheless, she provided training to over 30 refugees and host country women in beekeeping. 

Some of the refugees trained in turn, trained 10 beekeepers from the Ogoja refugee camp from the knowledge that they gained from the Masterbeekeepr from Bee Mindful.

With the start of the rainy season, refugees in Ikom have started placing their hives in the forests. 

We will continue to update donors on the progress of the work. 

We sincerely thank the donors who continue to assist the vulnerable refugees in learning how to keep bees to be able to support their families. 

• Winrock_Training_Program_for_Global_Givingcompressed.pdf (PDF)