Over the next 7 days, the Changemakers 365 projects will be dedicated to a special member of the ARC family – Colleen Striegel. Colleen has dedicated the last 17 years of her life to serving with ARC.
As she moves onto her next adventure, we wanted to do a couple ideas in her honor, about things that she cares so deeply about. First up? Bees!
Bees are an important part of any ecosystem, and we wanted to make them an important part of the economy in Kyaka Refugee Settlement in Uganda!
“The climate of Kyaka is very good for bees,” said one of the camp leaders. So we got to work.
The first stop was to find some local bee hives. After finding a couple promising leads, we landed on a beehive-making master. He promised us that he could make hives that would attract bees so quickly, we’d have to set it up as soon as we got them.
He wasn’t joking! Within a week there were bees buzzing around their new homes! We delivered 6 new bee hives to one of the leaders in the camp so that he could learn how to create a successful bee keeping project – and teach refugees in Kyaka the art of bee keeping.
Beekeeping is a really valuable livelihood for refugees. Honey is in demand, and bees don’t need to be fed and require a small amount of maintenance. It’s a great way for anyone to help support their families.
Now, Kyaka is all a buzz – and the bees are pretty happy too!
