A pair of UK bee­keep­ers were pro­filed for teach­ing bee­keep­ing skills to chil­dren in Uganda. Dave Bon­ner and Cath Tompsett trav­eled to Uganda with the char­ity Global Care. The char­ity raised the money for bee­keep­ing equip­ment and the cou­ple is teach­ing the peo­ple how to do it to earn extra income.

From the arti­cle in the Coven­try Tele­graph, we read more about how this type of skill can help the poor in Uganda.

Ten new hives have been pro­vided which will mean extra income for poor fam­i­lies, bet­ter nutri­ents for mal­nour­ished chil­dren, and even­tu­ally, a voca­tional train­ing oppor­tu­nity for young peo­ple sup­ported by Global Care.

Dave, 57, a bee inspec­tor for Leices­ter­shire and Rut­land, said: “The idea is to give the chil­dren another skill and another source of income.

If peo­ple can get a hive with the cor­rect bait­ing, which intro­duces a smell within it to attract the bees, then it is easy to keep them.

“Bees are plen­ti­ful in Uganda. The land is lush and green and there is lots of forage.

“A hive built locally only costs about £20 but when the aver­age worker there is only being paid about 30p a day, which is £90 a year, then they sim­ply can’t afford to do it.

“What we are doing is rais­ing money for the hives and giv­ing peo­ple aware­ness of bee keep­ing and teach­ing the skills so they can be used as a local resource.

“Once it is up and run­ning a hive can give them an addi­tional £120-£150 a year through sell­ing honey and wax.”

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