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Empowering Women in
Kitui- The Honey Project
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Click to enlarge
The leader of the womens
group at Zombe explains to Fr Paul, Alex and Sr. Florence
how the group have successfully set up a goat rearing
project with a loan from the Diocese. Having repaid the
loan, they are now starting an aloe vera soap making
project, and are seeking support for a honey production
venture.
Friends of Kitui have
committed to supporting this venture in 2007.
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Click to enlarge |
(Left) Trainee beekeepers
examine the smoker, used to pacify the bees while working
on the hive.
(Right) Alex explains how
the Langstroth hive is constructed |
Click to enlarge |
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The Honey Project aims
to give women a greater degree of independence by giving
them a
source of income which they can grow and develop for
themselves and their families. The
Project will provide, on a repayable loan basis, a number
of beehives to each woman. The loans will be repaid out of
product sales, and used to finance further extension of the
programme to new participants |
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This video includes an introduction
by Fr Paul Healy, describing the Development objectives of the Diocese of
Kitui |
Page Contents:
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Worldwide, more than two thirds of those living in poverty are
women. A similar proportion of women have been deprived of educational
opportunity, and suffer the penalty of illiteracy. Gender based violence has a major impact on huge numbers of women in the developing
world. All to often the consequences of chronic poverty fall squarely on the shoulders of women and girls. |
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The Honey Project
aims to give
participating women an annual income of €100- €200
($125-$250 approx). To see the impact this would have, let's look at
financial data published by the World Bank: |
Gross National Income (GNI)
comparisons for Ireland and Kenya
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Country
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2003
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2004
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World Ranking
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| Ireland |
$27020 |
$34280 |
9 |
| Kenya |
$400 |
$460 |
138 |
| In 2005 Ireland moved further up the
world rankings, and is now 3rd or 4th in the world in terms
of GDP. Kenya's 2004 ranking placed it 138th in a World
Bank listing of 171 countries. Kenya's average GNI figures
do not tell the whole story- a huge percentage of the
population of the Kitui Diocese lives on less than €1 per
day. |
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enlarge
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The
first training course for the first 20 women participants
in the Honey Project took place week commencing September
17th 2006 at Baraka Agricultural College, Molo, Kenya.
Baraka College is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru
and managed by the Franciscan Brothers. |
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restrictions on womens' access to,property and resources are a
major contributing factor to poverty in the Kitui District, as is
the case in many parts of Africa. The Honey Project will
empower women by giving them control over a resource which will generate wealth
for them and their families, and in a way which can expand in the future. Top of Page
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This programme intends to
improve womens' status, and hence access to, and
control of resources, by providing them with their own
source of income through beekeeping. The use of beekeeping
as a means of supplementing income is becoming more
widespread throughout the African continent, and in many
other countries also, and has many environmental benefits. |
Introduction:
Empowering
The Women of Kitui Diocese
By
Rev. Fr. Paul Healy, Diocesan Administrator
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our struggle to overcome the many challenges that face our people, the Church in
Kitui
Diocese is deeply involved in the areas of Education, Health, Water development,
Aids prevention, food distribution, seed production and food security, land
advocacy, women’s and children’s rights and other political issues that
affect our people and their way of life.
At
the heart of our programmes there is the desire to empower women in our
society. |
.For generations they have borne the greatest burden of famine,
discrimination, and being treated as second class citizens.
We have had a womens' programme for over fifteen years with a full time
womens' co-ordinator working for the financial, cultural and social
empowerment of our women. As part
of this we now have a micro credit and finance scheme for our women.
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intend to initiate a new programme that will enhance the existing scheme.
Our intention is to initiate a honey business in each of the 23 parishes
that will be managed, owned and operated for the sole purpose of empowering
women financially. In this way the
women
will have economic power to direct their own lives and have resources to care
for their families. We have the
technical expertise at hand or can offer others capacity training where it is
needed. The
honey industry has existed in Kitui
for generations and the basic knowledge |
is
already in the community.
Our aim is to enhance the existing knowledge by new technology, and offer
a processing, packaging and quality control site, so that we can access a wide
market for selling the honey.
We will aim initially to access the local market with quality honey that
is produced to the highest world standards and free from any contamination.
We will also seek to access foreign markets as the project develops.
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the first year, we hope to have trained sufficient numbers of women so that
every area in the district will have a cluster of new bee hives
managed by the women.
Our hope is to have over 200 hives operational within a short time of
project commencement, with a medium term (2 year) target of 2000 hives.
All training is available in Kenya and two full time workers will be
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employed to assist the women in managing the project.
Others will be employed as required on a seasonal basis.
With some support over the next two to three years, I believe that this
simple project can challenge the economic plight of our women and lead them to
greater dignity and hope. Top
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