A gift of bees buzzes with benefits!
Because of deforestation, limited year round crops, and lack of flowering plants, many species of bees became almost non-existent in Cambodia. And without bees to pollinate vegetable gardens, crop output can be very challenged. Along with the introduction of water wells and vegetable gardens into rural villages, Sustainable Cambodia is now reintroducing beekeeping.
Bees help struggling families to earn important income through the sale of honey, beeswax and pollen. Even in the first year of beekeeping, a family can earn 50% more income from the output of just one hive, and they provide nutrition for the family. And SC is working with native bee species, helping to preserve the indigenous bee population. Placed strategically, beehives increase fruit and vegetable yields, and in this way the gift of beehives becomes a boon to a whole village.
Like all Village Gifts through Sustainable Cambodia, this gift will be pooled and used to support the empowerment-based Community Development programs. These programs become self-sustaining through the pass-on process, through which the gift will continue for years to come... Families who receive bees, as an example, are empowered because they will later become donors themselves when they contribute a queen and starter-bees to another family, and the gift continues and grows from family to family. Because Sustainable Cambodia operates on under 5% admin & fundraising costs, and those costs are provided by the founders and directors, every penny of the contribution will be used directly in the villages. And all this empowerment begins with this gift of bees! |
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SustainableCambodia.org