Commercial Beekeeping for Young Entrepreneurs
Background
With over half the population living on less then £1 a day and unemployment rates at 40%, it is no surprise that young school leavers are finding it very hard to earn a living and work their way out of poverty. Based on a highly successful EU funded Commercial Beekeeping project, Africa Now is introducing beekeeping into schools as an income generating opportunity that will equip children with valuable business skills that they can use in later life, whilst also providing the school with an income that can be used to buy resources and improve students education.
Aims and objectives
This project aims to establish beekeeping both at school and after school, enhancing the educational curriculum and providing students with business skills for the future. The honey harvested from the hives is packaged and sold in Kenyan supermarkets. The additional income pays school fees of poorer students and supports schools in purchasing valuable school resources; such as desks, textbooks and stationary. Beekeeping has proved to be a popular option as hives require very little land and only minimal upkeep.
Students can also establish apiaries at home, increasing their household income. This additional income will enable struggling families to provide for their household and send their children to school thereby improving educational standards. It will also enhance employment prospects for school leavers due to their exposure to enterprise and business skills.
Activities
The project works with secondary schools in the western Kenyan region. As a trial it was piloted within 2 schools; Obuolo and Munzatsi Secondary Schools. Each school is provided with 40 Langstroth hives that will be set up within the schools compound. The schools harvest 3.5 litres of honey per hive every 3 months. The honey is then sold for a fixed and fair price ensuring that schools always receive an income for their hard work.
Results
This project has seen a remarkable degree of success. The pilot project has seen over 30 disadvantaged school children's fees paid for and the purchase of valuable school resources. Obuolo secondary school has received an amazing income of Kshs. 8,000 from just two harvests and has since purchased uniforms, set-books and mathematical sets. Munzatsi has also highly benefited from the project receiving an income of 3,900 Ksh from the sale of honey. As a result, students have received maths sets and textbooks.Former students have started a youth group to share the benefits of their beekeeping experience with the local community.
Based on this amazing success, the project won an "Entrepeneurship in Education" award in December 2008 and the prize money has allowed two more schools to be supplied with 10 apiaries each. Both of these new schools have now set up their apiaries, and have just collected their first harvst of honey! One school has suggested that their profits from the honey will go to developing a science laboratory for their students as well as providing the necessary resources for poorer families in the community.
Case Study: Education that pays for itself!
The incredible success achieved by both Obuolo and Munzatsi schools was unprecedented. Students are now being trained in packaging and marketing to aid in selling their produce on supermarket shelves.
The honey from these schools has now been licensed under the trade name 'School's Apiary' and is being packed in sealed bottles of 350g and 500g. The commercial beekeeping concept at these schools has become so successful that people are now going into supermarkets and personally asking for the honey! The word has spread like bush fire about the products from the schools and so most parents, neighbours and students would rather buy their honey to support the less fortunate students and their school.
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For more information on the original Beekeeping project please view the Commercial Beekeeping page.