Modern Beekeeping in Northern Uganda
(Original)

Robert Okodia
(Age 23, Uganda)

For nearly twenty years, the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, led by Joseph Kony, has produced great suffering in Northern Uganda especially among rural youth and young people (teenagers), including some 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).  Northern Uganda is counted among the poorest region in the Uganda with 60% of their population who are rural young people and youth seriously hit by poverty.

60 percent of my local community who are youth in Adyaka Lira district in Northern Uganda is practicing bee keeping and I believe that beekeeping is a viable business and can create a sustainable living for a population of individuals who have been victims of war, HIV/AIDS and poverty.

It requires very little and allows our war affected youth, women and children, an opportunity to become self sufficient, dispite the fact that they own no land. This is a low cost business. It can easily provide valuable food and medicine for families in need. Honey and beeswax are excellent cash crops with a ready local market and potential for world market. 

With your support I can provide more beehives and training needed to my local community composed  of vulnerable youth and children and allow them to take an active role in improving their plight.

I started some of our community members with bee training and hives. I have witnessed the postive impact it can have.

In the short term it can easily provide valuable food and medicine for families in need.  Ultimately I plan on helping them enter successfully the world market with the honey products.  In the longterm beekeeping will enhance the environment as well as give youth a business experience that teaches respect and understanding for the environment, along with giving them a marketable skill which empowers them to be productive, proud members of a healthier community.

I have identified a target local population of the most vulnerable rural youth, women and children which I want to include in this project. Local youth and women have agreed form a committee to work & help coordinate this project. Local support is crucial for success. The success of our initial beehive recipient’s shows that in one year 1 local beehive can be harvested twice producing 5-10Kg of honey. Each Kg sells at market for 4,000/ which equals $3US dollars.  I plan to provide 100 children and young people out of school with a beehive.  I plan to build a honey collection refinery center which would give us capacity to enter our local honey into the world market.

I have begun to train my beekeepers in commercial production with an emphasis on quality control. Am educating beekeepers on how to recognize the best time to harvest and how to harvest honey without any residues. We have plans to set up a bee training site and will promote this as a tourist attraction and possible research facility, as well as a training facility.

I will maintain the commitment from Sub County Department of Production, The National Agricultural Advisory Services, the Community Development and the Parish Development Committee; all have committed to provide technical assistance for project implementation within a collaborative framework at all stages of development.

This project will enable rural, poor marginalized youth and children to create a sustainable income generating business and involve local families working together in many facets of the training and implementation.

This is  innovative because it has great potential for success as a business yet  owning land is not critical for success, and it is not costly. –

Offers training in life skills to young people,-

Teaches respect and understanding of the environment,-

Allows us to promote education to youth and young people who are illiterate,-

Gives us potential for increased impact:  the project will help me achieve my strategic plan which includes among other income generating activities such as piggery, poultry keeping, arts and local handiwork and a longterm plan for timber and fruit trees for youth and young people.-

This is locally driven.  Youth and young people are committed to its success and they are the backbone of our rural communities involving families,-