Opening Day at The Hive

On July 1st, we had the Opening Day of The Hive! It is simply impossible to sum up here all that went on into making this day happen! It was pretty insane, really! But it makes me think back to five or six years ago, before this was even a dream! I was sitting with five women in a primary school classroom, making beads out of recycled paper ... none of us had any idea that we would be doing this here now!

Some of the Upendo wa Mama Group with Bhatendi

Early Beginnings!

So what exactly is The Hive? The vision for The Hive is to be a place in the community where, by the grace of God, women disadvantaged by albinism can confidently stand, not only in order to better provide for their own children, but also in order to reach out to others in the albinism community, in particular to help children with albinism without families, and also to serve and benefit the wider community at large. We strongly believe that God has established the work of our hands at Upendo wa Mama and we are blessed to be a blessing to others!

Thanks to the very generous support from Under the Same Sun, we have the use of this, now-very-yellow building!

The main area is a shop, displaying and selling the beeswax products that the women have made in the workshop over at the Standing Voice property. The shop is also selling popular products from Neema Crafts in Iringa, beautiful things made by people with disabilities.

In the shop with Aikande, the Upendo wa Mama group facilitator

Monica and Jeni ready for business!

Looking through the shop to the workroom

In addition to the shop, there is the Honey Processing Room. The Hive, working together with EI Beekeeping Projects, will help and support rural beekeepers in the Mwanza region to process and market their honey. The Hive is a central place where village beekeepers can bring their raw, freshly harvested, quality-checked honeycomb to press and filter and get labelled in jars and on the shelf to sell! And Upendo wa Mama are happy to buy their processed wax for the workshop. Bhatendi, the EI beekeeping trainer, is already getting signed up for guided tours explaining the honey process. We hope this will be a fun part of what The Hive can offer to the community ... demonstrating very visually, the honey process and sharing the importance of beekeeping and value of honey!

Where the honey action happens!

Ready to filter, press and bottle!

There is a small workshop room for sewing projects and for the labelling of all the products made by the mamas; there is a storeroom/office and then a small kitchen with future dreams of its own! We are working alongside Mavuno Village, getting their fresh organic produce available for people in Mwanza to order and every Tuesday here is Mavuno delivery day! We are also working with both Union Coffee in Moshi and Tanzanite Coffee in Arusha to make their amazing coffee available to people in Mwanza ... orders are collected and coffee is delivered at the beginning of every month.

If you are local to Mwanza, you can pop by the shop on Makongoro Road or contact Upendo wa Mama on WhatsApp (+255 746 879 901) to buy beeswax products and sign up for coffee or organic produce deliveries. And non-locals can check out the catalogue on the WhatsApp number to order our products! Please do share our story and spread the word!

A busy workroom! 

The little kitchen ... now complete with an oven!

Mavuno produce orders ready for collection!

We are incredibly grateful to the many who have helped us... Elisha has helped with so much of the building and contractual work, Kate Winter has been awesome designing our logo and then Tahan Martins helping us to bring all the elements together to brand The Hive! Local artist Sappy made us an awesome sign and local carpenter Tabia has worked so hard making all the shelving and furniture! Many friends have been sounding boards and advice-givers! Amisadai and Louisa have been fantastic helping with all kinds of work from painting doors to cashier training to babysitting children! And we are so grateful for all the support from the Mwanza community, especially coming out on our Opening Day! As I write this, I am very aware of how much I am going to miss all the Hive action! But so very thankful for Aikande and Bhatendi who are carrying the work forward! And now to finish this post, here are some photos from our first day!

Busy sales!

Bhatendi explains the Honey Room!

Louisa at the Honey Treats table!

Children checking out the Nyuki Stix!

Laura and Peter celebrate the opening with us!

Great to have the Standing Voice team visit!

The Hive in the trees on the road between the airport and town!