In the town of Battambang, in the north of Cambodia, Rose partners with Bee World Project to assist a local non-governmental organization called Hearts & Hands for Cambodia to generate funds for a much-needed Day Care Center that provides daily care, love and support to 75 local children. The children are some of the poorest children from eight villages that surround the Center in Battambang. As families struggle with local employment and lack of financial resources, they know that their children receive the best in daily care at the center. The Sobbhana Day Care Center provides two healthy meals daily, preschool education, personal hygiene (bath time, brushing teeth, clean clothes) and a wonderful safe place to play and be themselves- normal children.
The founder of Hearts and Hands for Cambodia, Christine Wagner, has been working to get a bee project going in the region for years in order to provide stable income opportunities for the parents of children who attend the day care. In 2011, Rose Charities and Hearts and Hands for Cambodia, approached Bee World Project to help start a sustainable beekeeping initiative in this community. Bee World Project is pleased to be funding a Phase One Beekeeping project in Battambang in addition to providing short-term operational support for the Day Care Center.
In early 2013, a Bee World Project instructor will travel to Battambang to spend one month teaching up to 30 farmers from the eight surrounding villages. In addition, the older children attending the Sobbhana Day Care Center will begin to learn beekeeping in order to provide training for potential livelihood opportunities in the future. This is the first of three phases that BWP is committing to the region over the next decade. Securing a beekeeping project will assist families to increase their earnings and eventually the families will be able to contribute to the cost of the care for their children. The Center, when not in use by the Day Care will be perfect as a central meeting place for the beekeeping villagers. Our goal is to create a self-sustaining beekeeping economy that will supply badly needed income to villagers. In addition, the community is sure to benefit from the increased nutrition that honey can provide and the influence that increased pollination (from the bees) will have on local fruit and vegetables.
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