Beekeeping for Congo Pygmies
Donation protected
‘Bee a champion’ and help develop sustainable beekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo!
Meet Toussaint, a professional Congolese beekeeper who heads Congo’s only beekeeping association.
Your support will help HandUp Congo (Australian-based NGO with more than 100 years of connections to the DRC) send Toussaint and another expert colleague to remote Lotumbe village in Ingende Territory of DR Congo’s Equateur Province.
They will teach a 10 day course for 40 village representatives, who will then train other farmers. This workshop will address the art of beekeeping in Congo’s setting. Topics include: why bees are beneficial, basic bee biology and behaviour, beekeeping equipment and how to make it locally, selecting a site and starting a bee colony, managing honeybees throughout the year, extracting and marketing the honey.
Funds for this initiative will support the airfare from Congo’s capital Kinshasa, the 600 km roundtrip canoe travel from the provincial capital Mbandaka and stipends for these 2 trainers. (Note: Lotumbe is so remote it takes 16 hours to travel 300 km via a motorised dugout canoe – if they had to paddle, it would take at least 7 days!)
WHY BEEKEEPING?
This innovative social enterprise will assist the marginalized Pygmy community with sustainable food security practices as well as promote reforestation, vital steps needed to lift the Lotumbe Pygmies out of poverty and protect their vulnerable ecosystem. Gaining skills and resources to sell honey will enable families to earn a sustainable living for generations to come.
What a sweet deal!
WHY HELP PYGMIES?
Displacement and discrimination have devastated these traditional forest dwellers for millennia.
Across the forests of central Africa, forest peoples have lived by hunting and gathering. But in the past few decades their homelands have been devastated by logging, war and encroachment from farmers. This has impacted their health and income-generating opportunities.
THIS PROJECT NEEDS A HAND UP TO GET STARTED
This crowdfunding goal is aimed at covering travel costs for 2 trainers (airfare, canoe, stipend). Any surplus funds will cover these important beekeeping tools:
($USD)
Bee hives - $100 each
Bee suits - $40 each
Gloves - $20 each
Bee smokers - $25 each
Hiring a canoe to sell honey at riverside markets - $50 each trip
Plus gardening tools, establishing a bee-friendly seed nursery and transporting materials to Lotumbe as well as eventually transporting honey to accessible markets.
HandUp Congo believes it is vital to give people a hand up NOT a handout.
www.handupcongo.org
Meet Toussaint, a professional Congolese beekeeper who heads Congo’s only beekeeping association.
Your support will help HandUp Congo (Australian-based NGO with more than 100 years of connections to the DRC) send Toussaint and another expert colleague to remote Lotumbe village in Ingende Territory of DR Congo’s Equateur Province.
They will teach a 10 day course for 40 village representatives, who will then train other farmers. This workshop will address the art of beekeeping in Congo’s setting. Topics include: why bees are beneficial, basic bee biology and behaviour, beekeeping equipment and how to make it locally, selecting a site and starting a bee colony, managing honeybees throughout the year, extracting and marketing the honey.
Funds for this initiative will support the airfare from Congo’s capital Kinshasa, the 600 km roundtrip canoe travel from the provincial capital Mbandaka and stipends for these 2 trainers. (Note: Lotumbe is so remote it takes 16 hours to travel 300 km via a motorised dugout canoe – if they had to paddle, it would take at least 7 days!)
WHY BEEKEEPING?
This innovative social enterprise will assist the marginalized Pygmy community with sustainable food security practices as well as promote reforestation, vital steps needed to lift the Lotumbe Pygmies out of poverty and protect their vulnerable ecosystem. Gaining skills and resources to sell honey will enable families to earn a sustainable living for generations to come.
What a sweet deal!
WHY HELP PYGMIES?
Displacement and discrimination have devastated these traditional forest dwellers for millennia.
Across the forests of central Africa, forest peoples have lived by hunting and gathering. But in the past few decades their homelands have been devastated by logging, war and encroachment from farmers. This has impacted their health and income-generating opportunities.
THIS PROJECT NEEDS A HAND UP TO GET STARTED
This crowdfunding goal is aimed at covering travel costs for 2 trainers (airfare, canoe, stipend). Any surplus funds will cover these important beekeeping tools:
($USD)
Bee hives - $100 each
Bee suits - $40 each
Gloves - $20 each
Bee smokers - $25 each
Hiring a canoe to sell honey at riverside markets - $50 each trip
Plus gardening tools, establishing a bee-friendly seed nursery and transporting materials to Lotumbe as well as eventually transporting honey to accessible markets.
HandUp Congo believes it is vital to give people a hand up NOT a handout.
www.handupcongo.org
Organizer
Lucy Hobgood-Brown
Organizer
Haymarket, NSW