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! 

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! 

 

The Buzz for International Women's Day

It is International Women's Day on Monday, March 8th. And in brief, here is what's cookin'!

#HelpTheHive

Throughout March, we really want to help and support The Hive, Mwanza, the project empowering women with albinism and supporting rural beekeepers in Tanzania. There are so many needs all over the world right now but this is one small way we feel we are able to make a difference and we know many of you who have followed our blog know and love these women and beekeepers too. We hope you can get involved in whatever way you are able to!

You can find our Virgin Money Giving Fundraising Page here! 

The girls and I will be using this blog over the following weeks to communicate about the fundraiser and things related, so please come back soon! And get ready for the READY STEADY COOK Hive Challenge! (Details coming soon!) If you have any ideas or things to share, please do post or message as we really want you all to get involved and enjoy this month too! We will also be sharing on social media, so please join us and follow, share and contribute on what's happening with #HelpTheHive!

And now for a bit more story (you all know I am not so good at "brief"!!) 

It feels rather good to be back on the blog ... I realise I miss it! But now I am writing from our little home tucked quietly in the valley near Bath in lockdown and I'm not sure how interesting my posts would be! Our thoughts and prayers are very much with those we love in Tanzania. You may have seen Tanzania featuring on the international news recently, as a country dismissing the need for vaccines as a "respiratory illness" seems to spread across regions... 

There have been so many effects of the virus globally. Physically, mentally, economically, spiritually. It has been devastating in so many ways and yet there have also been many good things that we have seen to come out of it in areas of science, community, faith and values. 

There are huge global issues which personally affect each one of us differently. But we can all help one another in whatever way we can! And as we have seen, it is easier than we perhaps previously thought to be together virtually with those physically very far away. And that is why the girls and I are focussing in March on helping the women and beekeepers in Mwanza, Tanzania. 

As we raise support for The Hive, in particular, we are seeking to raise money to enable Aikande to continue in her role supporting the Upendo wa Mama women and also Bhatendi in her work with rural beekeepers. Aikande and Bhatendi are doing a really amazing job (in very challenging circumstances) working with The Hive and we really want to make sure they have they funding they need to continue this work. As of this month, we are so excited that Aikande will be working officially with Emmanuel International. If you are joining us for the first time, we will be celebrating these two inspirational women more throughout the month and you can find out more about who they are and the work they are doing!

International Women's Day is a good occasion to celebrate and give a voice to women who have been marginalised and recognise women who have made a difference. It is a chance to honour and applaud women who are using their gifts to serve and help in wonderful ways and also an opportunity to for us all to serve and pray for women who are oppressed and hurting. Many women today are looking for value and worth, for equality and rights. As a Christian, I am thankful for the truth I believe, that women are created in God's image, and this is where our true value and worth is found. This is life-changing! And if this is our starting point, we just need to look to the example of Jesus as we see just how valued women are in His eyes. It changed society in the first century and it can do it now!