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Update-
May 2008:
During
our visit to Kitui May 7th-May 11th 2008, Alex Kavili,
manager of the Diocesan Goat and Sheep Project (GASP)
gave an update on the honey project. Hive occupancy is
rising, now nearing 40% overall and 65% in GASP. This
pattern has been confirmed by the experiences of other
independent beekeepers in Kitui who introduced new hives
after the very heavy rains of late 2006- even these experts
found that it took more than 12 months to attract any bees.
From a total of eight sites, four have occupancy rates of
15% and the remaining four average 50% occupancy. These
figures are encouraging. Alex has identified some
factors which might explain the 15% occupancy, and further
training and instruction of the women will take place. |
With
the great benefit of hindsight, the initial expectations of
a quick success for the pilot phase of the Honey Project
were misplaced optimism. Lessons have been learned about
the selection process for thse who were to receive hives:
we also have developed a better understanding of the extent
of the training and instruction required. The pioneering
beekeepers will now form a nucleus of trained personnel to
pass on their knowledge to the next batch of women to be
given hives. Future recipients will also be asked to make a
proportionate contribution towards their hives up front, in
order to inculcate a deeper sense of ownership of the
project. We now feel reassured that the project is
performing quite well and holds considerable promise.
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| History
of the Honey Project
Friends of Kitui launched the
Honey Project in
September 2006.
Aimed towards
empowering women in the Diocese of Kitui in the Eastern
Province of Kenya, the project will assist them to set up micro-businesses producing pure
honey and other by products such as wax.
The
initial pilot scale project will assist 20 women and their
families. Within three years we expect to assist 200 women
and their families- a total of up to 1600 people including
children.
The first phase of the Project will
test the viability of honey production with smallholder farmers of Kitui and
Mwingi districts. |
What
does Empowering Women mean?
For generations
women have borne the greatest burden of famine,
discrimination, and being treated as second class citizens.
Worldwide, more than two thirds of those living in poverty are
women. A similar proportion 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 project will be operated as a
commercial venture after initial start-up costs are met. It
will be operated in such a way as to ensure sustainability,
while also generating profits for the women members. As in
many African societies, women generally do not have any
independent income. |
The Honey Project aims to empower women
by giving them control over an earning asset. It is not a
handout- participating women will enter into a contract
with the Diocese which will see them repaying the start-up
loans over the expected lifetime of the equipment, through
deductions from sales of honey produced. |
| The project will initially be launched
as a Pilot Scale Project (PSP). This will involve the
installation five beehives on four separate sites in
each of five parishes- a total of 20 sites.
A further 100 hives will be installed on the Diocesan
training farm – known as the Goat and Sheep Project
(GASP) farm- where the hives will be subjected to close
monitoring for comparison and training purposes. The entire
batch of 200 hives in the PSP will be operated on a
commercial basis. |
The outcome will determine whether the
full scale project will proceed late 2007.
If the pilot scale project fails to
show a commercially viable outcome, no further funds will
be sought for the project.
During the pilot stage we will select
20 women from the Catholic Womens Association (CWA) members
in 5 parishes who show a keen interest to participate. The
full scale project will expand to the entire CWA
community.
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| Initially the selected women will be
those showing enthusiasm and committment and who will be
prepared to sign a written agreement to partner with the
Diocese. Subject to signing this agreement, beekeeping
equipment will be supplied by the Diocese, and the costs
will be repaid by deduction from payments for honey
deliveries.he project will be managed by
CDK’s Assistant
Development Coordinator (ADC), Emmanuel Kisangau, an
Agricultural Engineering graduate with 7 years
experience in project development and management of social
and agricultural projects.
The other key
person will be the Project
Coordinator. Plans are currently underway to have
him/her recruited. The holder of this position will be the
direct contact person with the participating women. He/she
will maintain close monitoring of project activities and
generate project information for decision making. |
The project will be managed
and run on a sustainable basis- i.e after the start-up
phase, the project will be self-funding, generating
sufficient return to enable re-investment in the
replacement of equipment and beehives at the end of their
useful lives.
Costs for the replacement of
worn out materials and equipment will be born by the women
themselves and at full cost. We expect that the Diocesan
workshops will be equipped to make the hives in the medium
term, thus generating additional skilled employment.
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We are
delighted that we have been able to engage the services of
Mr Tom Carroll of Baraka Agricultural College, a specialist
in beekeeping, to advise on technical issues and on
potential for marketing the products- both honey and other
by-products..
Baraka Agricultural College, Molo,Kenya promotes
Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) in
Eastern Africa through participatory education, extension
and research. Baraka has a number of beekeeping courses, a
beekeeping equipment workshop and a beekeeping outreach
project to local communities.Tom Carroll, a
graduate of University College, Dublin, has worked
on African beekeeping development for the past 13 years and
is currently Head of Beekeeping with Baraka Agricultural
College in Molo, Kenya. More information at the Apiconsult
website.
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The first 200 beehives which were manufactured in Kenya
by Baraka Agricultural College workshops were delivered to Kitui
late December 2006 and were distributed over the following
six weeks.
For Phase 1 of the project, each participating woman
will receive two Langstroth hives and three Kenya Top Bar
hives. Even the experts differ as to which hive will
perform best in Kitui- so the
200 hives will be closely monitored during Phase 1.
From the results, we will be in a better position
to decide which type of hive to recommend for the full
scale Phase 2 project, to commence late 2007.
We originally expected that the first honey harvests
would be
collected in February or March. Due to the exceptionally
heavy rains of November/December 2006, the bee population
of Kitui was severely affected and so occupation of the new
hives has been slow.
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| The
budget for Phase 1 of the Honey Project is €29,300. As of September 2006,
Phase 1 has been fully implemented and the
project is up and running. Phase 2 of the project,
originally due to commence August 2007, has been deferred
until monitoring of Phase 1 is fully complete. This is
because the exceptional rains of November/December 2006
caused devastation abong beekeepers in Kitui and delayed
the process of stocking the new hives with bees. Phase 1
will now be evaluated after the next November/December
rains. The Phase 2 project has an additional
budget requirement of approximately €130,000 spread over the years 2007
to 2009. |
The principal elements of
the Phase 1 budget are: |
| Hives and equipment |
€17,500 |
| Training |
€ 1,500 |
| Diocesan staff salaries |
€ 5,500 |
| Transport costs |
€ 3,300 |
| Miscellaneous |
€ 1,500 |
| Total |
€29,300 |
Project
Monitoring
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| The Project for the Empowerment of Women (The Honey Project) will be managed
and administered by the Diocese of Kitui. The project budget and business plan
will be evaluated by a committee including a representative from Friends of
Kitui. Friends of Kitui has arranged to provide the voluntary services of an
experienced business person to carry out ongoing evaluation of the
programme, to
maximise the chances of success.
By February 2007, the first
phase batch of 200 beehives had been installed. Training of the women participants
took place at Baraka Agricultural College in Molo, under
the supervision of Tom Carroll, a UCD graduate now
specialising in beekeeping at Baraka.
The project
will be monitored by Pat Torpey for Friends of Kitui. Monitoring will
include regular visits to Kitui to review progress, and to report back to
the project donors.
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Our
first evaluation visit took place April 2007. As reported
above, the exceptional
rains of November/December 2006 caused devastation abong
beekeepers in Kitui and delayed the process of stocking the
new hives with bees.The occupancy rate (percentage of hives
colonised by bees) was less than 20% in April. By the
time of the next visit to Kitui in July 2007 a small
number of women had succeeded in harvesting honey, and we
were able to video the harvesting process on one location.
Meantime, a honey processing facility has been set up in
the Thome Pastoral Centre in Kitui, and nearly two tons of
honey had already been purchased by August 2007 for
processing (this honey was purchased from other suppliers
in addition to thise beekeepers sponsored by Friends of
Kitui). Processing of the honey and packaging for sale
under the Diocese label will generate additional income
which will be fed back into the women's programme. |
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| Your donations to support the
completion of Phase 1 of this project, and preparation for
Phase 2, will be most welcome.
A donation form to accompany your cheque will be
found on the Downloads Page
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All
donations for Friends of Kitui projects are handled by
Trocaire, the development arm of the Catholic Church in
Ireland. If you are a PAYE payer, your donation will
increase in value by the amount of the tax you have paid.
For non-PAYE donors, your donation will qualify as an
allowable expense. A receipt will be issued by Trocaire for
each donation. |
| Cheques
should be made out to "Trocaire -Friends of Kitui A/C". Click here
for a Donation Form . Please forward your donation to
Pat Torpey at the address shown right, or if you prefer
direct to Trocaire at the address shown on the Donation
Form . Receipts will be issued
by Trocaire. |
For more information please contact:
Pat
Torpey
26 Hyde Park,
Dalkey,
Co. Dublin,
Ireland
Telephone
+353-1-285-0988
e-mail:
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Bank
Account Details:
Account
Name: Trocaire-Friends of Kitui Account
Bank:
AIB Bank, Dame Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
Sort
code 93-20-86
A/C No. 21118071
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E-Mail
Addresses:
Due
to the amount of spam mail we have received, we have had to
show our e-mail addresses as graphics so that they cannot
be read by spam mail programmes. To contact us, please type
the address shown into your e-mail programme. Our apologies
for this inconvenience. |
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