Beekeeping: a sustainable community project with Nsangeni Support Group

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have launched our first sustainable community project with Nsangeni Support Group: beekeeping.

Who are Nsangeni Support Group?
Nsangeni Support Group (NSG) was founded in 2014 by 20 women living with HIV/AIDS. They formed the group to promote a sense of community, to promote the rights of those living with HIV/AIDS and to encourage members to take part in activities and projects within their villages.

Now, 8 years later, the group has 35 members, ranging from 30-55 years old. Since Community Highlight was set up we have supported members of the group, but always in a quite a short term way. Since Thoko joined the team, he has been working closely with them to work out how we can provide more sustainable opportunties.

So, what is this project all about?
The aim of the project is to train and support NSG members to set up a beekeeping business so they can start selling honey; this will improve their nutrition while also providing them with sustainable income.

The project aims to reach the following objectives

1. To help women living with HIV and AIDS, youth and men in the community to identify income generating activities which will enable them to reduce poverty in their homes.
2. To establish and support beekeeping as an alternative local farming enterprise that will create employment while saving the environment.

What do we hope to achieve in the first 12 months?
We have purchased 20 hives and all members have already received their beekeeping training.

Each hive should generate around 15-25 litres of honey per year. With this in mind, we expect, after 12 months, for the first harvest to generate approximately 2,000,000MKW profit, which is the equivalent of £1,701.

Members have set up a village bank account which will allow them to keep the money safe and choose how much to reinvest in the programme, and how much to take out for themselves.

Once 12 months is complete, we will analyse the successes and the challenges and decide whether to support the members to purchase more hives, or take up more training.

Why is this so exciting for us?
This is a huge moment for our little CBO. Since we were founded, we have tried hard to set up and maintain sustainable projects, with an emphasis on wellbeing and income generation. However, it hasn't been an easy ride, and the last few years have really challenged us financially and emotionally.

The launching of this project illustrates a huge leap in the right direction for us, and shows how far we have come as an organisation. We are so incredibly excited to see how it goes, and keep you updated along the way.


Thank you so much for reading about our brand new un-bee-lievable project. If you would like to support this programme, or any of our work, we would be forever grateful; just hit the button below. Wishing you all a warm and peaceful transition into Autumn, Team Community Highlight

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