
Amba Farmer’s Fund: Women Beekeeping Project Nigeria
Amba Farmers Voice (AFV), an agricultural TV educational program for farmers, in collaboration with Refugee leaders is working to develop beekeeping as an income-generating and sustainable livelihood project for 200 Southern Cameroonian Refugee women in Cross River State, Nigeria. These refugees have fled the genocide emanating from 5 years of civil war in the Cameroons. The amount required is $ 25,000. This amount is projected at $125 per beneficiary and will cover the cost of hives, suits, gloves
The Problem: Over 800.000 Southern Cameroonian Refugees are dependent on handouts for survival, a situation that is unsustainable. Most organizations assisting refugees focus on providing relief materials that tend to create dependencies among refugee populations. Beekeeping is an alternative to chronic poverty. Beekeepers need the training to produce sufficient yields and control bee diseases. Beekeeping offers hard-working people with proper training opportunities to explore beekeeping to make an income.
The Solution:
AFV and two professional beekeepers from the US will create a cooperative of 200 beekeepers in refugee camps in the Boki, Ajaso, and Ogoja in Cross River State, Nigeria. This coop of ‘primary beekeepers’ will be established to manage community apiaries via monthly mentor-led training sessions from US beekeeping professionals. 80% of the interested beekeepers are female. Adopting the US Farmer-to-Farmer training approach ensures that activities are community-led, giving beekeepers the learning opportunity.
Long Term Impact:
By introducing beekeeping as an alternative livelihood over the next year, we will seek to drive economic development across the refugee camps and thus help alleviate poverty amongst the refugees in Nigeria. This will be accomplished by the use of clean plastic drums designed following the Kenyan Top Hives model, whilst also collaborating with local Nigerian villagers, and other local NGOs to develop a rigorous disease prevention program. Also, regular training will be held to build capacity