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Empowering Women in Kitui- The Honey Project

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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.

See the HONEY PROJECT Page

 

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(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

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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

 

 

This video includes an introduction by Fr Paul Healy, describing the Development objectives of the Diocese of Kitui

Page Contents:

Why is Women's Empowerment needed?

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.

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

Country

2003

2004

World Ranking

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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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.
The 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 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

In 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.    
We 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.    
Within 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  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 of Page