Category: Meet The Beekeeper

Behold the Beekeeping for Life Woman from Nigeria!

Behold the Beekeepers for Life Woman from Nigeria!

February 24 2023

Slow Food International and Bees Abroad UK are duos of which the Promotion of good, clean and fair food (honey) can be attained through Social Entrepreneurship option.

Mrs Afuape Fadilat joined the Capacity Building Training Workshop Support from Bees Abroad UK in 2020 at Abotokio Slow Food Beekeeping Community Abotokio, Nigeria. She quickly became a renown Slow Honey Packer, Beekeeping for Life, developing her business through soft loans and profits made from honey sold.

Today, she is being patronised by hundreds of customers in her local environment for maintaining natural honey quality. A honey of natural traits without any additives or adulteration!

Mrs Afuape is now the Spokesperson to Beekeeping for Life Women Slow Food Garden Community, Ilaro, Yewa South, Ogun State, South-West, Nigeria!

"I am committed to promote good, clean and fair enough honey by religiously following the Slow Food Beekeeping Philosophy" - Mrs Afuape

A Personal Introduction by Mrs Afuape

My name is Mrs Afuape Fadilat Abosede; a Nigerian local Honey Packer and marketer. My skills were greatly developed through the Bees Abroad UK’s Beekeeping Capacity Building Training Workshop support at Abotokio Slow Food Beekeeping Community Abotokio, Nigeria in 2020.

Through the training, I was motivated by the books by Pam Gregory’s manuals on Beekeeping and the encouragements from Messers Asade and Oreyemi Babatunde.

Later, I developed the interest for honey packaging and marketing with the notion of promoting good, clean and fair honey mostly, in my local environment. My efforts were recognised by Bees Abroad Trustees and I was nominated as one of the African Women to be part of the Beekeepers for Life Women Initiative in 2021.

In 2022, I had the opportunity to participate in the Promotion and Development of Horticulture (Vegetable Value Chain) training Workshop support by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Through this training,  I developed my skills in Vegetable Value Chain Development. This knowledge then prompted me to establish a personal Household Slow Food Garden where I planted sweet potatoes, chochorus and amaranthus for family consumption. In addition to that,  I also served as an Extension officer for a pilot project in my Community.

I am currently a Ward Facilitator for the ongoing Nigeria for Women Project in Yewa, in the northern area of Ogun State. The knowledge that I have gained from this project and from the support of Bees Abroad, gave me the confidence to do more. I have now registered my community as a Beekeeping for Life Women Slow Food Garden Community, Ona Egbo, Ilaro

In our community, we work together to promote the philosophy of the Slow Food Movement through Beekeeping, Gardening, Advocacy and Campaigns.

Thanks to Bees Abroad UK and Abotokio Slow Food Beekeeping Community, Abotokio, Nigeria for turning me into a Social Entrepreneur through Beekeeping.

Mrs Afuape Fadilat Abosede

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Official Declaration of the Power of God Farmers Slow Food Garden Community Ilaro on Friday, 17th February, 2023 at the Secretariat of the group.

Meet Afuape Fadilat Abosede, a Beekeeper for Life in Nigeria

Meet The Beekeeper

Afuape is a Beekeeper for Life from the Abotokio Slow Food Beekeeping Community Women’s Group in Nigeria.

Meet Afuape Fadilat Abosede, a Beekeeper for Life from the Abotokio Slow Food Beekeeping Community Women’s Group in Nigeria.

Afuape was struggling to provide for her three children after trying various means of generating income. As she was trying unsuccessfully to sell phone cards at a market stall, she met Mr Asade who convinced her to try beekeeping and introduced her to the Abotokio Slow Food Beekeeping Community Group supported by Bees Abroad.

Afuape attended Bees Abroad training, joining the three program and read all she could all about beekeeping.

“I read Pam Gregory’s books and was highly inspired and concluded that if Pam Gregory, a woman like me can achieve one or two things through beekeeping to the extent of producing these two books being used worldwide to empower people, I must benefit too and have impact.”

She was inspired to start her own business processing, packaging and marketing a reliable source of natural, good-quality, clean, honey. She took out a loan, and working with two group beekeepers, began selling quality honey from group members. She was immediately in business with demand and profits increasing.

Afuape discovered a role which used her talents and enabled her to become her own boss! Following the training she received in the Bees Abroad capacity building project, she buys the raw materials from active beekeeping group members. She has now set herself up as a honey producer, packer and marketer and creates valued added beeswax creams and soaps to sell. The money she raises is being used to expand the business and pay school fees for her children… and the honey is improving their family nutrition!

Afuape is excited about the future and has plans to establish a personal apiary from where she can harvest her own honey and beeswax for her family business.

“I dreamt very big and was determined to have impact.”

 

If you would like to help more women like Afuape support themselves and their families through beekeeping, please donate to the Beekeepers for Life Campaign during the Big Give Christmas Challenge (Nov 30 – Dec 7) when your donations will be doubled!

Visit our Big Give Campaign page

"Meet the Beekeeper"

Behold the Beekeeping for Life Woman from Nigeria!

•
February 24, 2023

Meet Afuape Fadilat Abosede, a Beekeeper for Life in Nigeria

•
November 20, 2021

Meet Anastazia Charles – she is one of our Beekeepers for Life in Tanzania

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November 13, 2021

Meet Anastazia Charles – she is one of our Beekeepers for Life in Tanzania

Meet The Beekeeper

Jikomboe Group, Nyamcolechiwa, Kome Island, Tanzania

This week, as part of our “Meet the Beekeeper” series we would like you to meet Anastazia Charles, from the Jikomboe Women’s Beekeeping group in Tanzania. Anastazia lives in the small village of Nyamkolechiwa on Kome Island, on Lake Victoria.

“The women didn’t have any knowledge of beekeeping and were afraid of the bees, but now, they are very bold and are ready to work very hard to ensure the project is successful.”

(Justina Nswilla, local EI trainer for Jikomboe Group)

Anastazia is 57 years old and has seven children and four grandchildren. She works hard, growing food for her family to eat. Before joining the beekeeping group, she relied on selling “pombe” (homemade beer), but was unhappy, knowing it was not a good thing to do. She is now delighted to be part of Jikomboe (“Self Liberation”) group and looking forward to raising better capital through selling honey, and then being able to start other small businesses. Her hope is that this will enable her children and her grandchildren to go to school.

Anastazia recently attended her first beekeeping training with the group of twenty other women from her small community on this island in Lake Victoria. There is very limited infrastructure on the island and most of its people (the ‘Wazinza’) are subsistence farmers. Faced with a continual decrease in their crop yields and degradation of their natural ecosystem along with other poverty-related issues affecting health and education, there is a need for change.

Anastazia and the other women are excited about being empowered to enact this change! They are working together to learn beekeeping with trainers from Bees Abroad local partner, Emmanuel International (EI), and have hung their first 40 hives. The women are taught to incorporate beekeeping with conservation agriculture techniques, which combined with bee pollination will increase their crop yield and food security. They are also receiving training and support to establish and tree nurseries to improve their environment and raise extra income through sales.

Anastazia and the other women in the group are truly becoming beekeepers for life!

If you would like to help more women like Anastazia support themselves and their families through beekeeping, please donate to the Beekeepers for Life Campaign during the Big Give Christmas Challenge (Nov 30 – Dec 7) when your donations will be doubled!

Visit our Big Give Campaign page

"Meet the Beekeeper"

Behold the Beekeeping for Life Woman from Nigeria!

•
February 24, 2023

Meet Afuape Fadilat Abosede, a Beekeeper for Life in Nigeria

•
November 20, 2021

Meet Anastazia Charles – she is one of our Beekeepers for Life in Tanzania

•
November 13, 2021

Meet Jostina Biira! She is one of our Beekeepers for Life from the KITE group in Uganda.

Meet The Beekeeper

Jostina is the first of our featured beekeepers in our Meet The Beekeeper series highlighting the incredible impact achieved by the Beekeepers For Life programmes.

“Bees are money, food, medicine and they increase our crop yield.”

Visit our Big Give Campaign page

Jostina lives on the slopes of Kasebere village in Kasese District in western Uganda with her husband and five sons.

Unable to finish school due to limited resources, she is now delighted to have received training in beekeeping. She and other women formed a group called KITE and began training with LIDEFO in 2016 through the support of Bees Abroad. She is now so excited to share how beekeeping has helped her and the other women in the group.

The Kite Women's Beekeeping Group Committee
The Kite Women’s Beekeeping Group Committee

“Beekeeping, if compared to other agricultural activities, pays better and there is no need for high skills. The products of bees are consumed even in our homes as food and medicine and also there is a ready market, so when we sell, we can make money!”

The women in KITE have learned how to make top bar hives, learned how to care for them and how to harvest honey and wax. Jostina was excited for the first time in her life to cut timber and use nails and make herself a hive! We asked Jostina what changes she had seen in the KITE women since they trained as beekeepers.

“KITE women are very happy! We started with 4 hives colonized but now 14 have bees. The women never believed this could happen! But it is a miracle in this rural community! We no longer fear bees and are excited to see more hives colonized. And we have respect in our village. People now come to visit our Apiary as it is the only one they have seen in our village! They come to see the bees and are asking questions about bees and our hives!”

Through the KITE Women’s Beekeeping Group, Jostina has seen women enabled to come together and they have seen their environment improve through the planting of trees and flowers. We asked Jostina what her hopes as a beekeeper were for the future…

“I would like to learn how to make candles, shoe polish, lipshine with beeswax and increase income with business after selling my honey. I desire to make a shelter for my children, and I hope to be able to support elderly and disabled women and see more people trained in beekeeping.”

Helping more women like Jostina is the focus of our Beekeepers For Life campaign. This Bees Abroad initiative trains & supports women to become skilled beekeepers, community leaders, trainers & entrepreneurs, through our sustainable beekeeping training model with expert field practitioners. Alleviating poverty by creating Beekeepers For Life in rural communities across Africa.

Help us create more Beekeepers For Life by donating through The Big Give from November 30th to December 7th. For every £1 you donate through our Big Give page an additional £1 is donated, doubling our impact. Find out more by on our campaign page. 

Photo Credits: LIDEFO

Visit our Big Give Campaign page

"Meet the Beekeeper"

Behold the Beekeeping for Life Woman from Nigeria!

•
February 24, 2023

Meet Afuape Fadilat Abosede, a Beekeeper for Life in Nigeria

•
November 20, 2021

Meet Anastazia Charles – she is one of our Beekeepers for Life in Tanzania

•
November 13, 2021

Meet Merioth – Kenyan Honey Entrepreneur and Consultant

Meet Merioth (in blue above) showcasing her value added hive products.

Merioth trained in ‘value added products’ at the Nairobi Beekeeping Institute and through the mentoring of Bees Abroad Merioth now shares her expertise – training community groups in Kenya in ‘hive value addition’.

Merioth Leading A Training Session For Bees Abroad. Photo: Merioth

Merioth has her own honey business, ‘Nomo’, that sells honey, hive products and beekeeping equipment. She also provides consultancy services to private beekeepers.

Helping to create empowered women entrepreneurs is a central tenet of Bees Abroad philosophy. In a previous blog we introduced another one of our wonderful entrepreneurs, Grace, with her honey shop in Old Shoe Lane in Kasese, Uganda.

Merioth and Grace are only two examples of women beekeepers who have found that beekeeping has unleashed hidden talents in developing and growing their own businesses. Keep an eye out for more of our Bees Abroad entrepreneurs in future updates.

 

 

 

Meet Grace – Honey Shop Entrepreneur

Grace buys honey in bulk from beekeepers in the surrounding villages. Her shop is in the central market area of Kasese. Old Shoe Lane sounds quaint….vendors are lined up outside selling second hand shoes. Honey is carried often for many hours starting before dawn to avoid the heat of the day. On arrival beekeepers take the opportunity of rest, long conversations and a bit of shopping. Grace offers them beekeeping supplies including bee-suits made by a local tailor, smokers and hive tools.

Grace has a small honey processing centre near her home where she has a team of helpers who filter the honey, jar and label it ready to deliver to local retail outlets. Supplies of jars for honey have to be collected from Kampala which involves a two day round trip by bus with an overnight stay. Much of the honey is bought from Bees Abroad projects and it’s sold as LIDEFO Bee Friends Honey in various jar sizes. LIDEFO (Liberty Development Foundation) is our local project delivery partner in the Kasese Region.

Having a fair and reliable market for their honey is an essential motivation for the beekeepers in our projects.