Date: Thursday 17 March 2005
Venue: Church Rooms, Stow on the Wold
Notes for: Jeremy
Voaden
Our March meeting was addressed by one of our own members,Gillian Rose. Gillian provided us with an inspiring insight into work undertaken by the Transrural Trust to support beekeeping after the war in Kosovo.
Gillian has
been involved as a Project Manager for the Transrural Trust for 10 years. The Transrural Trust works “to lift rural
people out of poverty through enterprise, creativity and innovation”. It was
through her working contact with beekeeping that Gillian decided to take it up
as a hobby. This is the other way round to what usually happens when people
take up a hobby then make a career out of it!
The
organisation’s web-site (http://www.transrural.org/)
details the principles which inform their work and details of their work around
the world. These principles are summarised in the following paragraphs:
“What we do
We work in
partnership with rural communities, especially
where people suffer from economic
hardship or poverty of opportunity by reason of their remote location; or
where conflict or oppression has damaged the local economy. We work with people
and in places by-passed or overlooked by the major aid agencies and government
initiatives. Our approach is positive, pragmatic and aims to create self-reliance, not dependency.
We work with
these communities to develop products or
services, based on their own skills,
creativity and natural resources, and to help them identify markets. We forge links between
producers and markets. We encourage the development of high-value, low-volume,
non-perishable products that are more easily transportable from disadvantaged
areas.
We act as a catalyst for change, identifying and
implementing innovative solutions to rural problems and disseminating the
results.
We build on
what people have and can do but at the same time we contribute ideas and
experience to empower rural people to look beyond their own horizon. We aim to
create new opportunities and help stem the drift to the city,
especially among the young.
We develop and
strengthen groups and associations at every level, from national organizations
through regional to village-level and community associations, often focused on
a particular commodity or service.”
The ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo have long experienced repression. However, in 1999 when conflict erupted in the region, thousands were displaced across the border into Albania. Beekeepers in Kosovo saw 70% of their hives stolen or destroyed. When the Serbs came through the communities, they destroyed not only homes but hives. They knew just how much value people placed upon their bees. Many refugee families were hosted within Albania by beekeeping families.The Transrural Trust kept getting the message in Albania that beekeepers were in a bad way.
The Trust
decided to act by supporting Kosovan beekeeping and beekeepers.
The border
areas between Albania and Kosovo had been heavily mined by the Serbs. Other
organisations brought in cattle but the local population were too scared to let
the cattle graze due to cluster bombs and mines. Bees forage without the risk
of setting off explosives and so were acceptable to local folk.
Gillian shared
a picture of a banner hanging in the street reading “Amnistia per arme Kosove
2003”. The area is full of weapons long after the conflict has ended.
Bees are kept
in Langstroth Hives and in skeps. The latter are often made of wicker and
covered with mud. However, a range of alternatives can be found! We saw
pictures of tree trunks cut down and brought home with dustbin lids on top and skeps
wrapped in clothes which had been sent out as part of international donations.
One photograph
illustrated both the tragedy of the conflict and the potential of beekeeping.
It showed a picture of a father and daughter. The father’s son was 19 years old
when he was murdered in the garden outside the house along with the daughter’s
husband. She has been left to bring up 6 children. The father is the secretary
of the local Beekeeping Association and he has encouraged her to take up
beekeeping as a way of helping with her trauma. She started with two colonies
and the Transrural Trust are getting her another two.
On her first
visit to Kosovo, Gillian found herself working alongside former members of the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). One of these, active in the local Beekeeping
Association has a son called Melvin and three daughters called Athletica,
Bletta (meaning “bee”) and Flutera (meaning “butterfly”).
What does the Transrural Trust do with beekeepers in Kosovo?
1. Supporting
local beekeeper associations with equipment and
information.
We saw
photographs of a practical demonstration of how to make a wax press so people
can make their own foundation. Beekeepers are encouraged to use proper jars,
lids and tamper-proof seals, stressing the economic incentive in doing this if
the honey is to be sold. Workshops have been set up for carpentry and woodwork
to make hive parts. Funding has also been provided for the renovation of a shop
to sell beekeeping supplies. It was amusing to see boxes in the shop labelled “Natural
wax sheets from Argentina”!
Through the
Gjakova Beekeepers Association, the Trust has established a scheme very similar
to our North Cotswold “FreeBees” initiative. In Gjakova they have called it “Passing
the Gift”. Swarms are collected by beekeepers and passed on to novices. After
two seasons, one recipient had raised enough money from honey sales to buy an
extractor.
In the 3rd
year of the project, an outreach project was started. An elderly beekeeper had
told Gillian that in several remote rural areas, people were still using very
old hives. The Trust made contact with them to see if they wanted to convert to
modern hives. They created written materials to support the conversion.
The Trust
helped set up the 1st ever honey show in Kosovo in Gjakova. Later,
we tasted the honey produced by Sami Morina who won First Prize in the Chestnut
Honey Class. In addition, work has been done in local schools to teach the
value of bees in pollination and self-sufficiency.
2. Providing
technical advice where needed, especially in disease control.
Varroa is a
serious problem and the Trust encourages people to use prophylactics correctly
and in a co-ordinated way.
3. Providing
training in beekeeping for bereaved women who can earn
some money through the production and sale of honey and
other bee products.
The Trust has focussed on women as so many have been left widowed by the conflict. The number of households headed by women is very high. Gillian shared a photograph of a family who have taken over an abandoned Serb farmhouse. It houses a family of 5 – mum and her 4 sons. The youngest two boys were suffering from malnutrition.
One initiative involved setting up a little enterprise making beekeeping veils. The major challenge was that they could only obtain white net through which you cannot see. It has to be black!
The Trust has
supported reciprocal visits between Kosovan women and those from the northern
Albanian District of Puka.
People living
in a Women’s Refuge have been encouraged to develop some “added value” products
using wax and propolis. Sylvia Chamberlain from High Wycombe Beekeepers has
taught them how to produce face cream and various wax products. As a result,
the women were invited to the “Women In Business Exhibition” in Pristina in
2004. This group also won 1st Prize in the “Innovation Class” at the
aforementioned honey show in Gjakova.
Transrural
Trust
16a, Crawley Mill
Crawley, Witney,
Oxon OX29 9TJ, U.K.
Telephone: 01993
771230
e-mail: mail@transrural.org
Many thanks to
Gillian for a wonderful talk.