Update from our man in Uganda
I’m nearing the end of my first week in Uganda, a week spent in Kibaale District with EMESCO, the local non-governmental organisation overseeing our main project in this country — details of which you will find elsewhere. In effect my visit marks the end of this three-year project: the funding which the Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission has so generously provided is now spent.
So my job this time has been not only to see for myself what has been happening since I was last here twelve months ago but also to satisfy myself that things won’t fall apart now the project is finishing.
On both counts I’ve been tremendously reassured.
I’ve travelled out on some teeth-looseningly awful roads to visit several groups of our most recent recruits and it was obvious that they’ve taken to modern beekeeping with almost frightening enthusiasm! I discovered that already they’d each made on average ten hives for themselves from sticks and reeds in the way our field officer had taught them —twice the number we’d expected. And clearly they’d understood well how to manage these hives: the amount of honey they’d harvested during the season which is just ending was remarkably good. One of them, for example, had sold over £100 worth, which is quite exceptional during the first year of beekeeping; and though £100 may seem a modest sum to us, it is actually enough to keep two of his children in primary school.
Concerning the future, a couple of days ago I had the pleasure of presenting to our beekeepers a most important document: the Local Government certificate which shows that they are now officially registered as the Kibaale United Beekeepers’ Association. Almost since the start EMESCO has been preparing our group leaders to become the executive of this new association and from what I’ve seen of them I’m pretty sure they will do excellently well in supporting and encouraging their members and in safeguarding their interests.
But EMESCO will not now simply leave the villagers to their own devices. It would not be reasonable to expect the association immediately to take over the running of the complex honey buying, processing and marketing operation which has been vital to the success of this project. It is this guaranteed ‘market access’ that has been putting money into our beekeepers’ pockets and I‘m happy to report that EMESCO has now agreed to continue running the operation until the association feels able to do so themselves.
So I am now leaving Kibaale confident that we have made a real and lasting difference to the lives of some of the country’s poorest citizens. I shall spend next week in neighbouring Hoima District, on a very different mission as we shall see.
