News

UGANDAN AWARD

Simon Ojok who lost his vision after an attack by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels two decades ago has won a UGX 88m (US$23,517; €21,109) prize for a project to train young people in beekeeping.

Simon was one of three, out of a pool of over 200 applicants from 27 countries, who were announced winners of the inaugural Holman Prize for Blind Ambition. The two other award winners were Penny Melville-Brown (UK) and Ahmet Ustunel (a US citizen of Turkish descent) both of whom are blind.

The prize is awarded by the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a San Francisco-based charity that targets enterprising people who are visually impaired.

Simon’s target is to raise employment rates for blind and partially sighted individuals in the rural regions of Uganda. Born in 1981, he lost his sight in 1990 after falling into an ambush of LRA rebels in Gulu District. After a severe beating he incurred many serious head injuries. His vision quickly deteriorated as he could not easily access medication, but despite this, Simon took on menial jobs to survive and pay his school fees up to Senior Six.

Simon says his turning point was when he was walking in the bush close to home and came across a clay pot with bees and honey inside.

In 2014, seven years after working with organisations supporting persons with disabilities, he started the HIVE Uganda programme, which currently manages more than 100 colonised hives. His project seeks to provide 60 high quality hives and honey-extraction equipment, honeyharvesting suits, gloves and boots to beneficiaries who are all visually impaired.

“I feel relieved that we will be able to demonstrate that anybody, blind or partially sighted, can participate in development,” said Simon.

All the judges are blind. They found Simon’s project intriguing, considering that the scientific understanding of beekeeping biology was first worked out by the blind scientist, François Huber in the 19th century.

Simon says he will use the prize money to teach visually impaired Ugandans to become beekeepers and entrepreneurs as part of his HIVE Uganda programme.

Source: www.newvision.co.ug

CYCLONE IDAI

The celebrations for World Bee Day in southern Africa were subdued because of the devastating effects of Cyclone Idai that claimed many lives. Many beekeepers in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe lost their beekeeping enterprises. Hives and colonies were destroyed, and equipment swept away with other belongings. Our thoughts and hearts are with these communities and wish them a quick recovery from such losses.

David Mukomana, President - Apimondia Regional Commission for Africa

REQUEST TO ALL OUR READERS

We are conducting a survey of delivery times for BfD Journal. Please send an email to info@beesfordevelopment.org to tell us the date you receive your copy of this edition – thank you!

Everyone who responds will be entered into a prize draw with the chance to win a Bees for Development Bag for Life.

TELL US YOUR STORY

We accept articles and short reports on new or improved beekeeping techniques, information about bees and beekeeping in your country and your events. We welcome your comments and responses to articles we have published.

Articles should be 800-1,600 words in length and accompanied by images. Items can be sent by post or in email text or attachment in Word of pdf format. We accept images as colour prints or digitally saved as jpeg files. Please send images at the size they are taken off the camera. (Images resized for website use are not suitable for printing.

If it is not possible to include your submission in the Journal, we may place it in the Resource Centre on our website. All the information material we receive is added to our databank on beekeeping worldwide.

SPONSORED SUBSCRIBERS

If you change your email address or any other of your contact details remember to tell us. If we cannot contact you, we cannot sponsor you!