Local volunteers who set up training projects in bee keeping and honey production for farmers in southern Malawi in Africa recently returned from a five week assignment there assessing existing projects.
The group who work with the charity Zikomo set up training for 22 farmers in Machinga with the help of Evergreen Health Foods. Communities in the area had earlier received 70 beehives, bee-keeping equipment and honey presses from the charity.
However, they had not received Government sponsored training so the latest initiative will allow 11 local community groups to benefit fully from the beehive donation.
The Zikomo team say their activities have been very successful and have had a significant effect on people’s lives in the poorest rural regions in the country.
The Irish team has also begun building its second community resource centre in the Zomba area in the south of the country.
“These resource centres consist of a basic community hall, small library and an office and are used for adult literacy classes, food distribution for village orphans, basic health care, pre-school education and community meetings,” explains a spokesperson for the charity.
“For the first time in its short history Zikomo Ireland is now operating independently in Milawi and is employing a small groups of Malawians to carry out the development programmes. All the team members in Ireland work on a voluntary basis and they will be raising funds over the coming weeks for vital projects.”
