New SEGA Beekeeping Club Beginning in July
Did you know:
- There are sting-less bees…not just stingers?
- Bees are the only insect in the world that can make food people can eat?
- Only female honey bees can sting, not male honey bees?
Professor Msalilwa displays one of the 10 beehives SEGA purchased.
I didn’t know either until we recently attended an all-day workshop about setting up a Beekeeping Club, thanks to a Fundación Paraguaya grant! The professor, Jackson Saul Msalilwa, was from the local Sokoine University of Agriculture, and was full of fascinating, educational facts.
All 59 Form 2 students were so motivated by the workshop that about 40 of them filled out applications for 20 membership spots in the Club. (We will try to eventually add all interested students as soon as we work out logistics.)
It may not have been as glitzy as modeling on a New York City catwalk, but it was just as much fun!
The Club’s primary activities will focus on maintaining beehives, harvesting and processing honey, and marketing the honey for sale. The two objectives are:
- Entrepreneurship – Students will develop technical, tangible skills that they can use after SEGA graduation to start their own beekeeping and honey processing business.
- Financial Stability – The program will serve as a SEGA income-generating activity to help us become more financially sustainable.
The Club will meet once a week. In addition to learning beekeeping skills, part of the members’ responsibilities will be to share their new skills with other SEGA students and their community members.
We will keep you updated as to the Club’s success…and whether we are able to successfully learn how to make other products such as candles and creams!
– Susan, SEGA Peace Corps Volunteer
A student models one of the five protection suits we will purchase.
Learning to make face cream from beeswax. Estee Lauder, watch out!