Bees/or Development Journal 77
NEWS AROUND THE WORLD
NEWS AROUND THE WORLD 2006 to provide free medical care but its community development department will also in
BANGLADESH Angela Gomes runs one of the largest women's rural organisations in Bangladesh. Operating out of a 1.5-hectare training complex in Jessore, Banchte Shekha (Bengali for Learn to Survive}, founded in 1976, offers female-empowerment programmes to more
be focusing on establishing long-term
sustainable businesses. Sharon Biddell, project manager at the Africa Mercy said: "Women in Africa continue to face enormous
obstacles and they lack the training and means to prosper. This women-only programme is dedicated to promoting gender equality. Bee products can provide valuable food and medicine and beeswax is an
than 25,000 women in 430 villages. Amongst the vast range of income-generating
skills taught is beekeeping. Known as the ‘Mother Teresa of Bangladesh’, Angela Gomes won the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for
important cash crop. There is great demand for honey and other bee products from two well established production companies in
Community Leadership. In naming her as one of that year's awardees, the Board of Trustees cited her role in "helping Bangladeshi women assert their rights to better livelihoods and
Ghana and at present orders exceed
production capacities’.
The beekeeping training programme will target eight selected groups of ten students in
gender equality, under the law and in everyday life."
rural locations. Each group will be equipped to operate an apiary site of ten hives.
Source; www.ontlinewomeninpolitics.org/
GHANA A new community project aimed at reducing poverty in communities in Africa is being set up by volunteers of the global charity, Mercy Ships. The 'Busy Bees’ project has the capacity to train 80 women in beekeeping and honey farming to help raise additional income
allow the resumption of honey exports to the EU, which were stopped in July 2004", states Andrei Zagareanu, Chairman of the Association of Beekeepers. The laboratory
€500,000 has been provided with funding from the EU Food Security Programme that started in Moldova in
worth
April 2005,
Source: FAO NWFP-Digest-L 12/05
NEPAL Training of Trainers
Interactive demonstrations will be carried out by local skilled trainers in four stages over a four month period, guiding students through
on colony management, queen rearing, and hive making in Kathmandu in March 2005.
programmes supported by Mercy Ships helping to rid Africa of poverty.
Media House Press Release on behalf of
communities through a low cost, low input business.
Honey certification Moldova will acquire its first honey certification laboratory in the first halt of 2006. "The laboratory is regarded as a lifeline for beekeepers, as certification will
ICIMOD's Honeybees in the Himalayas project organised a Training of Trainers programme
one production cycle of beekeeping. This is just one of the many community development
in farming
MOLDOVA
Mercy Ships, July 2005
Participants included farmers from the villages surrounding ICIMOD's Test andDemonstration Site in Godavari, and farmers nominated by partner organisations. The course was targeted at building the capacity of lead beekeepers so that they can train other farmers in managing and
multiplying colonies in movable comb hives.
The Africa Mercy, one of Mercy Ships’ hospital ships, will be heading to Ghana early
Faroog Ahmad, ICIMOD, Kathmandu
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am sending information on some of the honey crops harvested by professional
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beekeeper Mr Naveed Qureshi, of Mr Bee Honey Farms, an apiary of over 500 hives. 2005 Mr Bee Honey Farms planned some
23
In
non-traditional honey flora in addition to their usual crops. The results from the litchi orchards in Lahore were excellent. Mr Bee Honey Farms Honey Crops 2005 Variety
Harvest
Quantity (tonnes)
Brassica (Sarsoon)
February
1.5
Citrus (orange blossom)
April
Bhaker
April
Litchi
April
Acacia (Phulai)
May
1.6
12 AE
12 18
Clover (Barseem)
May
2.0
Granda (Carissa)
June
0.2
Rubinia
June
0.2
Olive
June
0.5
In
1992 Mr Naveed Quershi was one of my
students on the practical beekeeping course funded by the Pak-German Beekeeping
available.
In the background you can see the beekeeper's tent and Ziziphus sp plantations where hives were placed in October 2004.
Promotion Project. The photograph shows us
at Lilla Junction on the motorway beekeepers often move empty hives on
Elizabeth Stephen, Senior Scientitic Officer, Institute of Plant & Environment Protection,
donkey carts if other vehicles are not
National Agriculture Research Centre, Islamabad
13
