Beekeeping Workshop in Kashitu and Community Small-Business in Zambia
Join us in supporting the small-business activities of hundreds of small-scale farmers in Kashitu. In cooperation with the Zambian nonprofit organization New Renato Community Society, we will support a beekeeping workshop and connect it with a tailoring workshop for local women and a carpentry workshop for youth.
With your donation, you’ll help move community small-business movement in Kashitu one step further and support the development of a small social enterprise in rural Zambia.
Friends of New Renato is a team of volunteers who, for the third consecutive year, have been working in cooperation with the Zambian nonprofit New Renato Community Society to build a secondary school in Kashitu. Our focus goes beyond construction - we work with the local community to ensure the school’s long-term sustainability. This will be partially funded through three interconnected workshops forming one social project centered around beekeeping. The initiative will generate income not only for local residents but also to help cover the school’s future operating costs.
Together with the local nonprofit, we are currently building the school’s third facility - a science lab that will also serve as a base for beekeeping workshop. The training of local beekeepers is led by Mr. Thomas, who has been educating dozens of beekeepers across Zambia each year. The community of beekeepers trained by him will now be supported by two additional workshops: women will produce beekeeping suits in a tailoring workshop, while young carpenters will craft wooden components for beehives.
Your contribution will help us make these workshops a reality.
What will you support?
How will it all work?
We’ve been fine-tuning the entire concept for over half a year through regular online meetings with the leadership of the local nonprofit, and now we are also meeting in person. All three workshops - tailoring, carpentry, and beekeeping — form a strong foundation for development within the local community. Beekeepers are learning how to raise bees, care for them, and harvest honey, which they can then sell. While there are already hundreds of trained beekeepers in Kashitu, many lack the necessary equipment. This is where the other workshops, run by the local nonprofit, come into play. From the women in the tailoring workshop, beekeepers can purchase protective suits, which the women are now learning to make. From the young carpenters, they can buy wooden components for their clay beehives at affordable prices. Beekeepers can pay for this equipment either in cash or in honey product - bartering with goods (in this case, honey) is still a common practice in Zambia.
The New Renato Community Society will collect an agreed-upon quantity of honey from beekeepers twice a year. Currently, the honey is only crudely processed and contains beeswax, which cannot be efficiently separated in Kashitu due to a lack of proper machinery. This reduces the honey’s market value. With the purchase of a new press for honey-wax separation machine, they will be able to produce clear honey, significantly increasing its selling price. Additionally, the leftover beeswax can be processed and sold as well. The income from this small-scale production will help the local nonprofit cover the operational costs of the secondary school currently under construction in Kashitu.
In the future, they also plan to open a small community shop in the nearest town, where they will sell their honey along with locally made beekeeping supplies - items that are scarce in the region and in high demand.
Through education focused on practical skills, local people gain tools and knowledge they can immediately use to support themselves. Introducing new technologies boosts their income. In remote areas like Kashitu, opportunities like this have an immediate and tangible impact - and open the door to a more sustainable and dignified livelihood.
Your support helps lay the groundwork for small business development and employment for dozens of people in the community.
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Our goal is not to build buildings and leave, quite the opposite!
From the beginning, we have been working with the local community, which asked us to help with the construction of a school complex. During the construction of the buildings, we transfer know-how and train carpenters, bricklayers, or welders. We use local methods, which we combine with technical knowledge, so as not to disrupt local traditions, but at the same time ensure the quality of the buildings and spread knowledge that allows local residents to better apply themselves in the labor market.
The entire project is created together with the Zambians, we share our experiences, learn about traditions and enrich each other. We mostly broaden our horizons and open up possibilities to which the locals have limited access due to the geopolitical situation. On the contrary, the life of the Zambians reminds us which values are really important among people. The strong friendly ties between the individual inhabitants of the village are an endless inspiration for us to return to the values that we often overlook in Europe during the endless hustle and bustle. From the summer of 2024, in addition to the construction itself, we are also developing a sewing and carpentry workshop in the local community, and in the summer of 2025 a beekeeping workshop will be added.
The 14-hectare Kashit Secondary School campus will gradually be built for 250 students. The school is designed as a boarding school, which solves the problem of long distances between homes and schools. Transport is quite inaccessible in rural areas of Zambia, public transport usually does not work there, or is too expensive, and walking from more remote locations is simply unrealistic.
You can also support the Kashitu Secondary School project by purchasing items from our e-shop or at events published on Facebook, Instagram or the project website.
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