HoneyAid: women beekeepers promote growth in Nepal’s recovery

In Nepal’s earthquake recovery effort, women beekeepers promote sustainable growth.

Meet Sonu.

Sonu is a HoneyAID beekeeper, part of the growing group of women who have been empowered by IsraAID with a new role in their communities. After the devastating earthquake, Sonu felt she was living in the shadows of death and destruction. Stuck in a grueling routine of long hours of household work, she felt there was no hope, no future. All that began to change when Sonu discovered HoneyAID, IsraAID’s beekeeping program.

“When this project entered into our village”, Sonu told us, “women are becoming so active and get involved in the activities of the society.”

HoneyAID equipped Sonu with the tools and support needed to care for her family and fully participate in the the growing honey industry. She learned how to tend to bees, gather honey, and market the finished product in the city. For the first time, Sonu has something of her own. She is feeling more hopeful and less afraid, ready to take part in the village’s efforts to rebuild.

With 219 Nepali women already trained as beekeepers and a farm of 100 HoneyAID bee-hives up-and-running in the village, HoneyAID is well on track to meet its goal of training 500 women in the New Year.  For Sonu and the other village beekeepers, the path to recovery has grown sweeter through HoneyAID. Within 72 hours of the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015, IsraAID was on the ground saving lives from under the rubble, tending to over 5,000 sick and injured, and rebuilding homes for 700 families.

As Nepal continues on the long road to recovery, we will be there at their side, accompanying the government, civil society, and local communities with holistic and tailor-made programs so that they can have a better year, and a bright future.