BEES TO BEAT POVERTY GIVE BIG TO SUPPORT FAMILIES
donated is matched by Champion donors supporting the campaign.
This year’s Bees for Development appeal is aimed specifically at young children, especially girls, in Amhara, Ethiopia who are kept out of school to do paid work or be married. And Covid-19 has only made matters worse.
The charity believes that with beekeeping skills, families can better cope and afford to keep their children in school.
The campaign is specifically aiming to help youngsters aged 3 – 18 years old. Amhara has one of the highest rates of poverty in Ethiopia, with low food security, low school attendance and high incidence of child marriage, especially among the most vulnerable and marginalised families. Many young children, especially girls, miss out on education when they are taken out of school to do paid work, or to be married. School closures, lost income due to Covid-19 and nearby civil unrest have made matters far worse.
A Monmouthshire-based charity that helps people in some of the world’s poorest countries is hoping to boost its coffers this month by taking part in a major match-funding project.
Bees for Development is a global charity whose aim is to make life better with bees by promoting sustainable beekeeping to help combat poverty, build resilient livelihoods and benefit biodiversity. The importance of bees has long been recognised, vital to pollinate food crops and wild plants. Founder Nicola Bradbear, an academic, set up the charity in 1993 after realising the value of bees for improving diversity but also seeing how beekeeping could help the poorest communities out of poverty in a low cost and low impact way. Based in Monmouth, nicknamed the Bee Town, the charity has some high-profile supporters with HRH The Duchess of Cornwall as President as well as Patrons Herefordshire’s own Monty Don, Sting and acclaimed beekeeper and newsman Bill Turnbull.
The charity works in Africa, Central and South East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central and South America and has well-established teams and partners in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda. The aim is to empower communities to help themselves out of poverty in a sustainable way, teaching beekeeping skills using local and traditional methods which work in the given areas.
This work was highlighted during the summer when the charity had a show garden at the belated RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Their award-winning installation represented beekeeping in the Middle East using clay bee hives rather than the wooden structures we are more familiar with and awash with pollinator-attracting flowers.
This month they hope to give their funding a major boost by taking part in the Big Give Christmas Campaign where every pound
With skills in beekeeping, families can earn income from selling honey and beeswax and so afford to keep their children in school and can better cope with the effects of COVID-19. Bees are a nature-based solution for people and for our planet’s biggest problems: climate change and loss of biodiversity. Beekeeping is a solution because it is accessible for everyone regardless of their age, gender, land ownership and economic status and does not overload the family with extra work.
The charity’s target is £55,000 which they hope will become £110,000 with matched funding which will be spent to provide the community with productive assets and useful skills to last a lifetime. It is hoped that with beekeeping skills learned, children are released from the need to work to support the family finances and can return to school.
The campaign kicks off at noon on November 30 and lasts for just one frantic week. Details of how to donate can be found at
www.beesfordevelopment.org
Aside from the Big Give Christmas Campaign, there are plenty of other ways to support the charity. They have their own shop on the high street in Monmouth selling a wide variety of bee related products, including gorgeous bespoke candles and honey infused whisky, jewellery, napkins, ceramics and of course lots of different honey.
The charity also offers a wide range of courses for people who would like to try their hand at beekeeping in a sustainable way, working with nature – a perfect gift for that hard to buy for friend or family member.
For those living outside of the area, everything is also available online on
shop.beesfordevelopment.org
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CHARIT Y BE E S FOR DE VE LOPMENT
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