On the 20th of May we celebrated World Bee Day. While this may sound slightly amusing to some, bees are no laughing matter for the vast majority of the people who live in extreme poverty, most of whom are smallholder farmers. While seeking nectar with which to make honey, busy bees pollinate the fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds that humans eat. Three out of four crops that humans across the globe use for food depend, at least in part, on pollinators like bees.
But bees are not only important for their “service” as pollinators; millions of smallholder farmers around the world raise bees for honey. The money they earn is an important way for many to diversify their incomes, and is important in making smallholder farmers resilient to shocks like insufficient rain or changing market conditions.
The study by TANGO of our THRIVE program in Tanzania showed that the reasons that nearly 95% of participating farmers were able to cope with the shock of COVID-19 without needing to sell off assets or restrict food intake were cash savings and income diversification. Click here for a copy of the summary of the TANGO report.
The story below is from Tanzania and illustrates why one of God’s smallest creatures – the bee – can help improve and diversify incomes.
Happy World Bee Day!
Christopher Shore, Chief Development Officer, Economic Empowerment
This Community Is Changed By Esther Chidodolo, World Vision Tanzania
Dressed in blue-and-red plaid and standing in a Maasai warrior posture, surrounded by two other Maasai men, Lenkinshoni quickly warns that maximum care should be taken since the beehives are nearby.
Maasai men are first and foremost warriors that protect their tribe, cattle, and grazing land. And they dress in bright colors to represent power and authority. All of these are presented by Lenkinshoni Olambanga, a husband and a father to twelve children - five girls and seven boys.
Lenkinshoni remembers the time when his wife would walk for eight hours to get water, which in most cases ended in a fight between men and women. Men needed water for animals whereas women wanted the water for domestic use. The traditional Maasai diet relies almost entirely on cattle, consuming the milk, meat, and even the blood. Lenkinshoni's family depended solely on milk from the cows, and on some days, the children went hungry, surviving on a single meal of porridge. “I felt like I was not worthy of living,” says Lenkinshoni.
Lenkishoni’s community resisted cultural change. He points out that the community only wanted to teach the children how to herd cows and protect their culture, even when the government forced them to take their children to school.
“All we needed was education to open up what we could not see,” he says.
One of the things that opened Lenkinshoni’s mind was an exposure visit to Yatta, Kenya, through World Vision’s THRIVE project. The exposure visit demonstrated practical learnings on farming as a business, beekeeping, and market packaging. When he came back from Yatta, he joined a savings group and began to work together with other farmers to gain access to markets for their products. World Vision also set up a demonstration farm where farmers learned and improved agricultural practices for greater impact.
Lenkinshoni joined a honey production group in his community. He also started a vegetable garden which provides vegetables for his family. “My children are now healthy, happy, and clean because they eat three nutritious meals and they even have a choice on what they want to eat."
His wife has turned all the flowerpots around their home into a kitchen garden, where she grows vegetables for her family. Even men have started eating vegetables, which was never the case in the past. “Just look at my skin, that’s enough to tell you that this community is changed and is taking care of their health and has access to nutritious meals,” says Lenkinshoni as he shows the skin on his arms.
Lenkishoni's dreams are to be a better father to his children who are still at school and a better husband. “I want to be a better father for my children and get more involved in their lives. Because I know the future belongs to them."
Upcoming Events
July 21, 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT – MADE TO THRIVE - SAVE THE DATE! With many lessons learned from our THRIVE and Recovery Lending for Resilience programs, join us for the launch of our new Economic Empowerment Business Plan. This will be a virtual event.
Interested in Hosting a "Fork to Farm" Barbecue This Summer?
Summer is coming, and a backyard barbecue can be a great way to introduce World Vision’s Economic Empowerment work to friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues. With a special focus on our evidence of impact plus our new Economic Empowerment Business Plan, our Chief Development Officer is ready to travel, be your “subject matter expert,” and help to spread the news about our life-changing work.
To learn more about hosting a summer event, please contact your World Vision representative, or contact Christopher Shore at cshore@worldvision.org.
Upcoming Vision Trip to Zambia
October 9-15, 2022 - Interested in seeing World Vision's work in the field? Join Bob and Sandy Hoover and others in Zambia to see Economic Empowerment and other Signature Initiative work. To ensure adequate planning time, please contact Perri Leung at pleung@worldvision.org immediately if you are interested.