Two Dollars a Day Muzungu: The Project

I think it’s time I talk about the project I’m working on out here, which might explain why I’m in rural Uganda, living off of $2 a day.

Beekeeping.

I did not take this job because I am knowledgeable about beekeeping, or even particularly fond of honey. This job is about gaining practical, field-based knowledge of running a livelihood program in difficult circumstances. And let me tell you, I am learning a lot. My main goal is to provide impoverished, rural farmers with the training and skills needed to increase their earning potential and lift themselves out of poverty. That’s a hefty goal – ‘lifting themselves out of poverty’ – but I believe if this program really gets going, in a few years time, a substantial difference can be made in the farmers’ lives.

In the six months I am out here, I am opening 3 offices/beekeeping resource centers in western Uganda. The centers act as an information hub for beekeepers, a honey collection point, training center, and equipment supplier. In addition, each center has a field officer, responsible for training farmers in the field. As they naturally do, farmers live far from the main village; transport in the field is non-existent, so transport must come to them. Which means that my field officer is very, very busy.

I recently accompanied my field officer and guest speaker (an Australian beekeeper) out to the field for two days of trainings. The training sites are far away from Hoima town, just about as rural as they come. The countryside is beautiful, with rolling hills and largely undeveloped nature. The roads are dusty, one-lane dirt roads riddled with potholes and crevices from the rains. Some were so large that it probably would have broken the chassis if we fell in. We actually got stuck in a ditch during one of the rain storms, and had to get into the bed of the truck and jump up and down to get ourselves out. The kids in the school nearby stood in the windows, laughing and pointing at the strange muzungu jumping on a truck in the rain.


Countryside.

One of our training sites.

Another training site. Yes, we even train under trees!

Most of the farmers seem grateful for the trainings, but we are still battling what I like to call the ‘Gimme Mindset’. Most NGO’s that do field work are in a habit of giving away free things. It’s understandable to want to supply the poor with the supplies to better their lives, but it has been happening for so long that the farmers have come to expect free things. Regardless of whether they can afford to buy, or even make it, now people proclaim they simply cannot work unless they get something for free. What I want to support is farmers helping themselves instead of an unhealthy reliance on NGO’s free swag. Foreign aid cannot and should not be a permanent fixture in developing nations; therefore locals need to learn how to work independently.

So when my farmers ask for free equipment, we encourage them to pool their money together to purchase one set of equipment and share until they can afford their own. We also will be teaching them to make their own equipment. I am also working on a partnership with a bank for a unique group-loan program. It’s an uphill battle, but at the end of the day, I’m happy with the direction the program is heading.

Here’s a few photos from my first visit to an apiary!!