Success stories

Casestudies of how Gifted is changing lives...

Buzzing with success

Bees are a great gift, funding an innovative apiary programme in Uganda. People like Sande George are having huge success as honey producers and their family’s wellbeing just keeps improving.

As a member of a village group in Western Uganda, Sande received training in Small Enterprise Development from long term CWS partner, the Church of Uganda. Then with some start-up capital and support, he began a Savings and Credit society. The members grew beans on their own plots but each harvest they all contributed two tins to the group. These were stockpiled and sold when the beans would reach higher prices.

They used the proceeds to start bee keeping – a livelihood opportunity that required minimal capital, could be done on individual plots and yields twice a year.

Sande started with 19 beehives and later received 5 beehives from the Church of Uganda. He has since bought 6 more hives and currently has 32 in total. He is harvesting from 26 of them, receiving 2-2½ jerry cans of honey (approximately 100 kg) per harvest. He formed two groups of apiary farmers in Ndekye. They regularly pool resources and help each other out. The groups were given bee suits, smokers, gloves, airtight buckets and beehives by the Church of Uganda to help boost their production.

Sande has opened a roadside honey shop. He also buys honey from other farmers and sells it to travellers and tourists along the Ishaka-Kasese road.

Before the bees, Sande could not pay school fees for his children and lived in a semi- permanent house. Now his children attend school, their housing has improved and Sande can afford his family’s domestic needs. He also contributes each month to the group’s Savings and Credit Scheme, which they use as a revolving fund for members to borrow and inject into new small scale businesses like poultry keeping and more bees. He is now giving other people the chance to enjoy the opportunities he has had.