Top Bar Buzz! Thank you!

We are so very thrilled to have topped our fundraising target of £2000 to Help The Hive! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed and shared and helped! Top Bar Results!

We are incredibly excited that Aikande will be funded to continue to work with the Upendo wa Mama group at The Hive. She has also just joined the Emmanuel International Mwanza team, working part time for office administration which is really wonderful! We are excited to be able to support Bhatendi and her amazing work training and supporting beekeepers in rural villages, linking these community groups to The Hive for processing and marketing. And further exciting news is that since we started this fundraiser, Justina has officially joined the team and will be training as a beekeeper to work with Bhatendi. They will be starting a new project working with women on Kome Island, building community groups and training the women as beekeepers. 

With Aikande's family and Bhatendi

And so this brings our March Hive Fundraiser to a close! In honour of International Women's Day, we have really enjoyed celebrating some of the  inspirational women we know (we had so many more we could have written and talked about!) We celebrate the amazing women at The Hive, who every day #chooosetochallenge... challenging the stigma attached to albinism and persevering through so many struggles. We celebrate Aikande and Bhatendi, working hard to make a difference in the lives of these women and others through the community projects. And we thank and celebrate all of you who have helped to make a difference for them! Thank you! 

If you would still like to Help the Hive, the Virgin Money Giving page will remain up until June 8th, so you can still head over there to donate! And in the future, if you would like to further support The Hive or the Beekeeping Project, you can give regularly or one-off donations through Emmanuel International UK or EI Canada. 

Thank you!

Looking Forward with Confidence: The First Female President of Tanzania

This week Tanzania mourns the death of President Magafuli. He died on Wednesday at the age of 61 after faithfully serving as President for the past five years. And on Friday, Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as the new President, making history as the country's first female president. This mother of four has spoken publicly to encourage Tanzanian women and girls to pursue their dreams. Affectionately known as Mama Samia, she told the country this week "it is time to bury our differences and show love to one another and look forward with confidence." 

New President Samia Suluhu Hassan

This is our prayer for Tanzania. And this prayer includes women and children with albinism. May the differences be buried. We hope that as the women in the Upendo wa Mama ("Mother's Love") Group love and are shown love, they and their children will be able to look forward to the future with confidence. 

At The Hive, we are so proud of Penina and Rose who are looking forward with confidence to putting their new computer skills to good use! These two women have been working hard over the past year attending evening classes at local Wesley College. They have now passed the entire course working through all the modules on Excel, Word and much more! Congratulations to these two women for this fantastic achievement! We look forward to seeing how they can put these new skills to good use!

Rose working on labelling products at The Hive

Penina with two of her children

Jeni and Laurensia are also putting new skills to good use! They have been getting further training in tailoring skills. These two mamas have been the chief seamstresses for the Upendo wa Mama group, making batiki napkins, cushion covers and this past year, so many fabric face masks! They beaver away at the machines in the workroom in The Hive. Now they have learned to sew beautiful dresses and we hope will be able to increase their business and income. 

We also celebrate with Jeni the safe arrival of her new baby boy! She had a very difficult time this month ending up in hospital with post-labour complications, but we thank God she is home and well now.

Jeni last year with her baby girl born 15 months ago.

Laurensia

Laurensia sewing as others also work in the Hive workroom

Jeni and her gorgeous boy a few years ago! 

There is always something so exciting about learning new skills! Two other mamas who did not have the opportunity to go to school, are about to start literacy classes. Other mamas would like to continue with further study with English (Amisadai did a fantastic job teaching weekly English classes while we lived there). We look forward with confidence!

But please keep the women in your prayers. This month as we have been fundraising in the UK, they have been really struggling in Tanzania. It has not just been labour complications for Jeni. Two other mamas have been in hospital; one of them struggling with diabetes, the other is still in hospital and not doing well. Another mama has had to travel to be with her oldest son (with albinism) to care for him as he is very ill. Aikande's little girl was very ill for three weeks and was also hospitalised. Another is about to give birth and we pray for a safe labour and a healthy baby. As well as the serious health issues, there is the struggle to care for their families, the medical expenses and the loss of income through not working. 

Yet, in all the struggle, the hope for the future is there. On the wall of the workshop, the group has mounted the words of Psalm 90:17 "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands." He is our hope. And through The Hive, we hope that others will be able to receive help and training. We want to be able to help and support particularly women and children with albinism, but others in the community too. 

Taken last year at the wedding of Elisha (EI) who has helped the women as they seek to develop small business and income-generating projects at home.
Next to Aikande on the right, notice Laurensia and Jeni in the beautiful dresses they made! 
Penina and Rose on the left.

Amisadai, Louisa and I again want to thank all of you who have helped to support The Hive and to see these women able, as their new President says, to look forward with confidence! (There will be more from the girls soon ... but they got a little buried in English assignments and Rhetoric speeches this week!) 

With 10 days left of our Fundraising month, we are now only about 10% short of our goal! If you would like to help The Hive, please see our Fundraising Page here! 

And if you would like to get a little glimpse into and behind the scenes of The Hive, here is a little video slideshow of the mamas at work!

Inspirational Woman: Claire Elsdon

(by Amisadai)

We have another very inspirational woman to share with you today! 

We were near neighbours with Claire when we lived in Tanzania, but I was actually first inspired by her when she came to speak at an Isamilo School Assembly in Mwanza about 3 years ago. It was an assembly I will never forget. Not only did she have a leather jacket and ride a motorbike, but she passionately strived to encourage and empower people through what she did … overcoming many challenges along the way!  

Women on motorcycles is not a common sight in Tanzania. Even women riding bicycles has been pretty uncommon … it’s a bit like beekeeping, not something that women traditionally “do.” But Claire has challenged that bias. Seeing the huge need to help midwives travel to help women in labour in remote villages and get women to hospitals, she has taught midwives to ride motorcycles! She has trained women not just to ride the bikes but to be highly skilled at bike maintenance and train people in road and bike safety. This is a huge issue in Tanzania with so many motorcycle accidents and deaths on the roads. They also teach children road and bike safety, which is so important as it can be so dangerous walking or riding the back of a bike to school every day. Through MJ Piki, she has set women up in businesses doing taxi and delivery service on motorcycles. 

The women of MJ Piki

The women at MJ Piki ("Brave women on motorcycles") in Mwanza are amazing and also very inspirational ... and so respected in the community! We would see them when they came to The Hive to collect products from the shop and the organic vegetable deliveries from Mavuno Village to deliver to people’s homes! 

Claire inspires me because she is doing something no one has done before (Pikilily is the first women-led motorcycle social enterprise in Africa); she is not afraid to try something new (and encourages others to do the same) and will do what she can to make a difference. She has taken her passion for riding and bike maintenance, something she is really good at, and used that skill to help and empower others in a truly amazing way. It all began for her when she rode 40,000km from London (leaving her job as a stockbroker) to South Africa on her bike … which is another very inspiring story you must hear about! I'd love to do what she did! You can find out more about Claire and help the amazing work of Pikilily here!

And guess what … I now have her leather jacket! 

And also ... thank you so so much for all the amazing support to Help The Hive. It is so exciting to see that we are so close to our target to help Aikande and Bhatendi and the women they work with at The Hive and in the villages! If you would like to help us with the final bit, please see our Hive Fundraiser Page here

Ready Steady Cook Hive Challenge Results!

What fun! We thoroughly enjoyed the Ready Steady Cook Hive Challenge ... except for the judging which was fairly impossible with so many incredibly creative and delicious looking dishes!

We had four countries and all ages represented! It was so much fun to have friends with us from Vancouver, Canada, North Carolina, USA, Ireland, and various places across the UK. Unfortunately our friends in Tanzania couldn't make it, but Tanzania was well represented with people who had lived there! 

The very international Hive Challenge!

I know you want to see the amazing things these chefs all came up with...

Everyone had a limit of 5 ingredients and the dish had to include HONEY.

Getting Ready...

Everyone had 60 minutes to make their dish before we all came back together to share the results. Zoom is fantastic for bringing people together from all over the world, but it really doesn't work when you want to taste all the amazing things you see on the screen!

This beautiful Honey Cake with only 3 ingredients won the Challenge!
They invincibly lived up to their name as the Honey Badgers!

Honey Bunny scored a super close second with this super creative display of
Honey Bee Buzzy Flappy Jacks! (Honey Bunny gets Best Ears Award)

Susannah gets the Youngest Chef Award for Original (and most colourful) Creation 
with her Blue-Berry-Stablein-Scream with the Berry-Stablein Team

It's Buzzing Grange Girls Group made these delicious
Honey Flapjacks which disappeared quickly with the boarders giving it top marks!

HoneyCache (avid Geocachers) produced a candle-lit gourmet meal
with their Honey Glazed Salmon (Fastest Chefs too)

 Honey Bee Biscuits from the WeBeeLong Team (Best Name Award!) 

Berry Merry made this dazzling Honey Cheesecake!
We love the decorating!

These beautiful Honey Waffles were made by the Honey Brothers
(they would make a perfect Mother's Day Treat!)

Beautiful and Most Unique were these Persian Sohan Asali
from Team Asal in Canada

And finally our Honey, There's a Chicken in the Bee-n Hive

So all in all, some really incredible results and such a lot of fun! We can't say enough how grateful we are for all the support to HelpTheHive! And to see all these fabulous friends tonight buzzing in kitchen ... it was just amazing! Thank you so much! 

We really missed Rachel, from Basingstoke, who had planned to join us and sadly ended up in hospital. We are praying for you, Rachel! But what was amazing, was communicating with Rachel as the Challenge was about to begin, and with her nurse, Nuru, who was from Tanzania! So we had Swahili going back and forth through Rachel on What'sApp and were chatting about Tanzanian cooking! It turns out Nuru's sister lives in Mwanza and so we were giving Nuru directions for The Hive for when she goes to visit! What a lovely connection!

Thank you! Almost Halfway!

Thank you!

Thank you so much to everyone who is supporting The Hive! We are now two days away from the Ready Steady Cook Hive Challenge, almost halfway through our month of fundraising for these amazing women and incredibly, we are almost halfway to our goal! 

Thank you so very much to all of you who have already donated! Thank you to everyone sharing our story with others ... we love that in celebrating the story of the women, we have celebrated Emma and Farhad's wedding and also Heather's birthday!

It is going to be wonderful to see Aikande able to continue in her role with the women with albinism at The Hive in Mwanza. And to see Bhatendi expanding her work training more beekeepers in community groups around Mwanza who can bring their honey to The Hive! So please help us get there! If you would like to donate, please head to our Hive Fundraising Page! Every bit helps!

Ready Steady Cook Hive Challenge

We are excited for Saturday's Ready Steady Cook Challenge and look forward to seeing what interesting concoctions emerge from the creative chefs that are zooming into The Hive from the UK, Tanzania and Canada! 

If you are not able to join us (or just a bit zoomed out!) we would love it if you can share a photo of something you have made with honey and a few other ingredients ... you can give it a good name and even share the recipe. If you can tag in #helpthehive and share the Hive Fundraiser Page it helps to spread the word. We look forward to posting photos and results here next week! 

Spoiler Alert ... Amisadai, Louisa and I are calling ourselves Team Topbar and our dish will be named "Honey, There's a Chicken in the Bee-n Hive!"

Inspirational Women

The girls and I have really enjoyed thinking about and celebrating women who have inspired us! We realise just how much we appreciate community. We are so privileged to know so many wonderful people, who we can learn from in so many different ways. To see how we all have different gifts and callings and how important that uniqueness is! And then also reading and thinking about women in the past who have blazed trails and overcome challenges is so encouraging.  We hope you have also been inspired by their stories and we look forward to sharing some more with you next week! 

Also coming up we want to share some exciting news for the Mwanza beekeeping project... but we will save that for next week!

Jo Hobson

Zoe Willford

Rhobi Samwelly

Aikande Sam

Laura Kelly

Inspirational Woman: Zoe Willford

Today's inspirational woman is Zoe Willford! She is a woman who has an amazing variety of gifts and skills and who always seems to be learning something new! She is a faithful and servant-hearted woman who humbly shares what she has with others. She lives on a wonderful farm called Allercott in Exmoor and this is the woman who first introduced us to the benefits of value-added products with beeswax. As we celebrate women of The Hive, we cannot miss out on thanking, celebrating and honouring Zoe! 

She came to us with her husband Julian for the first time in 2016 (having never met us!) and jumped in to our rather crazy house and schedule, whole-heartedly sharing her skills with women's groups in Tanzania! She braved very basic guesthouses in remote villages and adapted with great grace to the challenges continually thrown our way! She put up with early mornings, late nights and uncomfortably hot days. We all so loved having her stay with us in Mwanza on the occasions she came to offer her help and skillsets to help the women. She taught the women's group in Malya and the Upendo wa Mama group in Mwanza how to make beeswax balms and candles and from this, a business was born and four years later The Hive was open!  

Zoe is a woman who can inspire us all to always keep learning new things. And to develop the gifts and skills that God has given us and put them to good use! An attitude to share and serve ... even when it's uncomfortable, difficult or a little out of the ordinary! She is someone who inspires us just to give things a go, practically and humbly just give what can in order to help others. Thank you, Zoe!

And if you are looking for a beautiful place to stay for a holiday in Exmoor, follow the link here to book at their beautiful BeesKnees or Honeycott Cottages! 

Zoe teaching candle-making in Mwanza in 2016

With Malya Mamas four years later!

On another note ... there is still space if you would like to join in on the Hive Challenge on Saturday! We would love to see you! Just think of something you can make with HONEY and just 5 other ingredients! Ask us for the Zoom link! And if you can't join us live, please send us a photo (and name) of your honey creation! 

Thank you for all the amazing support for The Hive! We are getting closer to our goal and are so excited to be able to see The Hive continue with Aikande's leadership! If you would like to donate, please head to the VirginMoneyGiving Page here! Thank you so much! 

Inspirational Woman: Laura Kelly

 Our inspirational woman today is Laura Kelly! Amisadai and Louisa celebrate her here! 

Laura's love for God and for young people is inspirational! As is her humility as she listens and serves. Her desire to bless and encourage others. And she is doing an inspirational work addressing this very taboo topic. 

Pads and periods. Menstruation and puberty. 

They are not things we particularly like to talk about, and even as we have talked about this project with people in the UK and North America, we have seen the squirming, the embarrassed desire to change the subject. And it is even more of a silent topic in Tanzania. But challenge the shame! Jesus did not shy away from a woman bleeding! We have to talk about this! 

Girls' bodies are precious and should be respected and protected. Periods and the change from girl to woman is not something to be ashamed of. Every girl should be able to celebrate growing into the fullness of the woman she is created to be. For many girls in Tanzania, they are surrounded by myths and fears as their bodies change. Ashamed and confused, they miss school and many drop out altogether. Laura is teaching girls the truth about their bodies. How their bodies work, how they change, and especially how precious they are ... not to be shamed or abused. This is life-changing for these girls. Keep praying for Laura and her co-worker Theopister. Just last week, they heard the sad news that two girls have just left the school because they are pregnant. They are only 12 and 13 years old. The government now bans these girls from ever returning to school. The challenge is real. 

Here is Laura with colleagues Bhatendi (Beekeeping Project Manager) and Peter (Agriculture Project Manager) at the Opening Day of The Hive in July! If you would like to support The Hive, please see our Fundraising Page here! 

Happy Women's Day!

Happy Women's Day to you all! A day to celebrate and honour the wonderful women who have shaped and encouraged us, past and present! And yes, today I want to recognise, celebrate, honour and thank these amazing women pictured below. Women from the Upendo wa Mama group who have struggled through unbearable challenges and persevered through much adversity. Women who have encouraged me and taught me so, so much! I cannot thank them enough! They are truly inspirational women!

Women from the Upendo wa Mama Group with their children
(Photo Credit: Under the Same Sun)

As you all no doubt know from our various social media pages (we clearly didn't give up Facebook for Lent ... I think I have posted more in 2 weeks than I did all year!) the girls and I have been thinking and sharing about women who have inspired us. And we have focussed in particular so far on women we know who have actively been working to see women or girls freed from something. Freed from the threat of FGM, a cycle of crime, the dangers and shame surrounding albinism, and next up on the blog, from the fear and shame of menstruation and inaccessibility of an education. We have celebrated women who have been a voice for the voiceless or sought to help others somehow entrapped in or by something. Bringing freedom. And it raised the question, what is freedom?

At the same time, as part of a series with Holy Trinity Combe Down church, as a family, we have been reading together "The Bible: A Story that Makes Sense of Life" by Andrew Ollerton. It is excellent ... especially if you are really not sure about the Bible ... or life. It makes sense of it all. And right now, we are reading about the great quest for human freedom: The Exodus, "an epic story told from the vantage point of marginalized people overshadowed by empires whom they outlast". 

For some people, international women's day is about women's rights, protests, marches, fighting for equality... But I think that in all this striving for women's choice, self-expression and liberation, many are missing something. And freedom has been confused and meaning lost. Often now freedom is seen to mean the right to autonomy, free choice. It revolves around self, the individual which should have no constraints or limitations. But as Ollerton points out in his book, this has led to a society "drowning in freedom, and yet thirsting for meaning." with "a maximum of choice but minimum of meaning". We see this everywhere ... the high levels of stress and anxiety when self is not in control, in addictions and distractions, escapism and searches for meaning. Again, to quote Ollerton, "increased choices without a greater sense of purpose results in a tremendous, unbearable pressure."  

So we need to define freedom. As Ollerton says in his book, God is the ultimate freedom fighter. He is the one who sides with the underdog against the oppressor. And He sent his son, Jesus as the true freedom fighter for all humanity. The example of this freedom fighter has inspired countless people over the years (William Wilberforce to abolish slavery, Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton to "save the children," and many, many more including the women we have shared on this blog). And when it comes to women, in an ancient culture that devalued women, the Bible clearly points to another way. Women are created equal, in the image of God. Women are valued and their lives and their stories are important. Through the example of Jesus and the writings of the early church, we see that the faith of women and their contributions are significant. This is a culturally revolutionary freedom!  

As we look at the example in Exodus, and in Jesus (the true Exodus), we see that freedom means more than just coming OUT of something but also means a way IN. It is far bigger than just escaping something, but a journey of faith into something else. Into knowing the purpose for which we were created ... to be image-bearers of God, reflecting his beauty in a world that is broken and chaotic. As Ollerton says, "Exodus is about humans rediscovering the freedom and exhilaration of our original purpose." We don't need to pretend, to compare, to escape, to hide, to act, to strive. We are all unique; we look different, we have different gifts, different roles ... and that is something to celebrate, as we are all created in the image of God, with a purpose. 

And so I hope that somehow, International Women's Day can be reclaimed in the name of true freedom. As we honour women who have inspired us, celebrate the faith and contributions of women in our lives, as we join with the ultimate freedom fighter against the things we see around us that are breaking and hurting people, we want to show not just a way out, but also the way in. In to being free to be who we were created to be. I think this defines freedom! And it is for everyone!

"The glory of God is a human being fully alive" 

Irenaeus 

And finally, another big thank you for the kind support that is coming in to Help The Hive! If you would like to give something to help the work that The Hive is doing for women in Tanzania, please click here!

Inspirational Woman: Jo Hobson

 Our inspirational woman today is Jo Hobson!

We first met Jo quite a number of years ago in Iringa, Tanzania when she came with her wonderful parents (who are also pretty inspirational) to visit our good friends Andy and Angela (who are also very inspirational). We've been able to meet her a couple of times since then and are inspired by her vibrant, fun character (I don't think the girls actually knew what Jo did when they first met her!) combined with her servant-hearted commitment and dedication to working with women in and coming out of prison.

Jo co-founded and manages ID Essence, (which grew out of Kahaila church in East London, and is now part of ID Prison Ministry), working to mentor young women (ages 18-25), giving them training and resettlement support both in prison and then in their communities. Jo and the team work to break the cycle of offending through holistic mentoring, pastoral support and through life skills courses. Giving women skills and confidence, a true sense of identity to realise their full potential and be positive contributors to society. Jo is also actively working hard to challenge social injustice and raising awareness and providing resources through a Social Justice project to bring about change. 

Jo's heart for these women is for restoration, and she sums it up beautifully here... 

"There are no winners in crime. It can leave communities and all those affected feeling broken and fractured. We believe restoration is at the heart of the Christian faith and who God is. Our hope is that our work will reflect this by beginning to bring restoration where there has been harm. We want to help women in prison to feel restored in the way they view themselves and others.   

True restoration requires work on all sides and so it is our hope to see our society begin to grow in its understanding of people in prison, and the wider social injustices that have led them to be there. We believe that understanding is key to enabling communities to move through the fear, anger, hurt and stigma that surrounds crime and those convicted of crime."

We asked Jo to tell us about a woman who has been an inspiration to her. She told us about Sister Helen Prejean, who inspired her to work with people in prison. Sister Helen (born 1939) has been a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. She has ministered to inmates on death row and also founded Survive, a organization devoted to counseling families of victims of violence. 

So today, we just want to thank and celebrate Jo for the important work that she does. Compassionate love and faith in action! And also recognise and pray for all the young women she and her team are working with, women on a journey, vulnerable and hurting, traumatised and struggling, that they would know that they are created in the image of God, created with a purpose and that they could live in the freedom and fullness of what that is.

Here is a link where you can read more about the amazing work Jo does with ID Essence and support them.

And once again thank you so much for your support for The Hive! Here is the link if you would like to contribute ... it all helps! We are so grateful to all who have given and shared! Thank you!

Tomorrow is International Women's Day! Don't forget to share about a woman who has inspired you. And don't forget to sign up for the Ready Steady Cook Challenge on Saturday 13th! 

Inspirational Woman: Rhobi Samwelly

Today our inspirational woman is Rhobi Samwelly, a woman who has devoted her life to helping girls to escape the threat of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). Rhobi herself was a victim of FGM and now fearlessly has risked her life to stand up against cultural traditions that are harming (sometimes killing) so many girls across the world. She speaks up for the voiceless and has spoken worldwide to ministers and ambassadors. Known as Mama Rhobi, she has established Hope for Girls and Women, safe houses that have rescued hundreds of girls running away from the threat of FGM, providing refuge for at-risk girls in cutting season in the Mara Region of Tanzania. (Yes, this does really happen today. We have seen ourselves the girls that have run to Mwanza, and be helped through the work of Christ Daughters) At the safe houses, girls are supported in getting an education or vocational training. Rhobi then works tirelessly to reconcile the girls with their families and works with local village leaders, teachers and parents to develop alternative rites of passage which do not compromise the health and human rights of young girls.  Rhobi has a tragic and painful story, but it is inspirational how she has used her story to go on to change the lives of so many others. 

If you would like to find out more about this, about Rhobi and some of the very bravest girls in the world, you can do this on International Women's Day! Follow the link below to a sign up for a screening on Monday evening of the incredible film by Canadian filmmaker and founder of END FGM Canada, Gisette Portenier. Louisa and I will be there! And Rhobi will be joining afterwards for a Q&A session! 

(Amisadai)

Find out more here! In The Name of Your Daughter Screening

Volunteer as a Mapper (Louisa)

Now if this is something you #choosetochallenge there is a good way to get involved at home! And this is through mapping! I, Louisa, have been doing mapping as my voluntary service for the Duke of Edinburgh award. Some may think that lockdown meant there was not much we could do to volunteer ... but this is something really valuable you can do online from home! Janet Chapman from The Tanzania Development Trust (co-hosting the screening of the film) has set up a very good program in Tanzania called Crowd2Map, which is really helping to protect girls at risk of FGM and helping in all kinds of other ways for community development. 

Navigating to people and places in need, planning and development is very difficult when you can't find the way. We know this from living in Tanzania! It is hard to explain this to people in England when there are tarmac roads going everywhere you need to go and everyone is using GPS. But in Tanzania it is very different. Even to try to explain to people how to find our house in the city, we had to tell people to go past the little shop, turn onto the dirt road after the little banana stall, then go up a hill which feels like its a river bed, past the mango tree and our house is opposite the big rocks. (To find the house where we lived in a rural village was even harder!) I waited a very long time for everyone to arrive at a big birthday party one year! And once we had to try and explain the way to an ambulance trying to find us and Dad was out on the road trying to find it. So imagine that situation for so many people all over the country. So many girls in trouble. But crowd source mapping can make a really amazing difference! Online mapping volunteers everywhere can add roads and buildings to Open Street Map from satellite images and then people in Tanzania (it is done in other countries too) are trained as mappers and they add the names of the villages, hospitals, churches, shops etc. 

I am really enjoying being part of it and right now I am working on mapping an area in Tabora where there will be a project reaching out to keep girls in schools! It is easy to do, simple to learn with good instructions, it can be done anytime on your own. You simply pick the project and area you want to work on and start mapping! It's interesting to be involved, great to know you are helping people. And with lots of people just mapping their small bits, it all makes a big difference. You can find out much more about mapping here! 

Thank you to everyone who is supporting our #HelpTheHive Fundraiser! 

And don't forget to share your own stories of women who have inspired you! Thank you!

Who is a Woman who Inspires You?

 Who is a woman who inspires you?

This week Amisadai is involved in activities surrounding International Women's Day at their school and she has set the challenge for fellow students to think about this question. Here is a short video she made to pose the question ...

And now we also wanted to invite you into the challenge! This week is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate a woman who has inspired you! Tell us about someone who has inspired you, maybe a quote or a story too, I think it will be inspiring for many more of us, so please share! It can be anonymous too if that is more appropriate. 

There is so much we can learn from the life and experiences of others! And it is good to honour, encourage and thank others ... women don't have to be famous or "saints" to be inspirational, but let us appreciate the ordinary people in our lives who inspire and encourage us in everyday life! 

Please share in the comments here! Or head over to the Hive Facebook Page and share there! Or maybe write a private note to someone you know to thank them for the inspiration they have been to you. 

We know so many wonderful women we would love to celebrate here, but we have just selected a few of the women we know who are inspirationally using the gifts they have to serve and give hope... and then a few other women from history who we have been inspired by! The girls will be posting some of their inspirational women on social media and we will share here on the blog over the next few weeks and keep the hashtag #HelpTheHive circulating! 

Today, as you have heard in the video, we want to celebrate Aikande, our dear friend who is doing so much to lead and encourage the Upendo wa Mama women at The Hive in Tanzania. I don't think she realised just how much she was signing up for when she arrived! She has devoted herself to serving the women, learning so many new things and putting it all into practice! And I know that the Mwanza community she serves with the mamas through The Hive Shop (coordinating deliveries of fresh organic vegetables from Mavuno Family Children's home and orders of coffee and fresh meats...) they love and appreciate her too! And we are trusting that at the end of this fundraising month, we will be able to ensure her role at The Hive will continue!

Thank you so very much to those who have given to Help the Hive already! Thank you for your shares and likes and comments! You can find the Virgin Money Giving Page here! And our Canadian friends who would like to donate can now go directly to this EIC Giving Page! 

Thank you so very much, it all makes a difference!

Why Do Beekeeping?

For those of you who have followed this blog for some time, you know a lot about our journey into beekeeping! And it's been such a crazy journey! But we realise some of you here are new and may well be wondering, what the beekeeping is all about! 

We have been working with subsistence farmers in rural villages in Tanzania where a year of food for the family is dependent on their crop harvest. This can be hugely challenging in seasons of droughts or floods. Women carry a huge load of the work in tending the fields, cooking, collecting water and firewood, caring for children. Life is hard work. Secondary education is a privilege... There is so much more I could say! So why on earth do beekeeping with communities in Tanzania? Why raise money to support a beekeeping project? 

So Why Do Beekeeping?

Beekeeping is a sustainable, accessible, income-generating project for rural communities. Bees arrive in the hives for free (with a little encouragement!) and hives are locally made. Honey sales improve livelihoods, allieviating poverty ...and learning about beeswax as a valuable marketable commodity can often surprise people!

Top-Bar beekeeping (as opposed to traditional log hives high in trees) is inclusive, a project now possible for women! 

Keeping hives in fields greatly increases crop yields for these farmers, hives in trees increase fruit yields, improving livelihoods through diet and increased family income.

Beekeeping provides a perfect incentive to protect and care for forested areas for hives. A beekeeping group is motivated to integrate tree planting into their activities and start tree nurseries in their villages.

Training beekeepers in community village groups provides a wonderful opportunity to engage with people, establish support networks with discipleship and prayer, offer further training in entrepreneurship, savings and loans, and working together on other income-generating projects.  

And Why The Hive?

Through Emmanuel International and the local churches we work with, we have trained beekeepers in community groups in four rural villages so far. The Hive is a central place in the city of Mwanza where these beekeepers can bring their honey to process in a clean and enclosed (bee-proof!) environment. It gives the beekeepers a good market for their honey. And as these beekeepers are well trained in harvesting quality honey, the honey at the Hive is highly sought after, trusted not to be boiled with sugar or diluted with water! 

All of these groups are able to send a beekeeper to Mwanza with buckets of honey that the group has harvested. At the Hive, we have trained Aikande and Monika (in the Upendo wa Mama Group) to test the quality of the honey. If the honey meets Hive standards, the Hive will buy the honey and sell in the shop. (If the quality is not good enough, the beekeepers can always process it and then sell it in their own village). The women work with the beekeepers to process the honey and then the honey is all put in labelled jars to sell!  

We are excited about seeing The Hive help increasingly more rural beekeepers in providing access to good processing, a promising market and also hopefully soon, access to more resources and equipment! We will be sharing more in another blog about an exciting new project coming up in partnership with Bees Abroad for women beekeepers on Kome Island! 

If you would like to donate to Help The Hive, please head over to our Virgin Money Giving Page here

Thank you so very much! We so appreciate your support and the difference it all makes! 

 

Karibu Kupika ... A Blast from the Past!

We were looking through old photos and videos over half term! And found this hilarious video which was shown on Amisadai and Louisa's blog from Iringa many years ago (along with a photo of playing Bladder Ball with Ben and Katy!) The wonderful benefits of homeschooling ... this was a fun English unit on how to write and give instructions! Which also covered Home Economics, Math, IT and Drama! 

But we thought it might inspire you to get cookin' for the Hive Challenge! It could qualify if you add some honey to make it into honey shortbread! 

Are you READY now? 

Get STEADY (remember you only need some honey and FIVE ingredients!) and then ...

COOK! In 60 minutes on March 13th

Thank you so much for the donations that have just come in! We have now updated our Hive Fundraiser page with a short video explaining a bit of background ... particularly for those who don't know us so well personally! Please share the page with your friends and family!

We will be back here on the blog on Thursday with another challenge for those of you not so keen on cooking!