Empower 200 Cameroonian Refugee Women inBeekeeping

Dear Amba Farmers Voice Beekeeping Project Supporters,

A big hearty thank you for supporting this project to Empower 200 Southrn Cameroonian Refugee Women Beekeeping in Nigeria.

Inspite of the pandemic, we hope that you are doing great. As you will see in the attached pictures, we have started introductory training of the first batch of 30 women refugees in beekeeping in Ikom, Nigeria.

The construction of 52 bee hives have also started. Due to electricity challenges in Ikom, all the work is being done manually. Nevertheless, the work is progressing and we hope to complete the hives by the end of January.

Effective training of the refugee women will start in Febraury. The training will be dispensed by a master beekeeper virtually from Texas in collaboration with a local beekeeping expert who has been recruited for this purpose. This method of training is adopted because of Covid-19 since US laws prohibit sending Famer to Farmer experts overseas to train the beekeeper trainees. 

Another trainer for the cooperative aspect of the project is in the process of being recruited from the US. The trainer will work virtually with a local expert to train the women beekeepers in managing a beekeeping cooperative.

Other activities planned for the coming months include:

1) Planting a mixed variety of native and seasonal flower species to attract the bees throughout the year. The rainy season is the perfect time to plant these species. 

2) Purchasing beesuits, smokers and other necessary equipment.

We continue to appeal to more supporters to donate to the project to enable us achieve the goals of this project, which is to help these refugee women become self sustaining and support their families.