The first plan of action to generate long-term sustainable revenues for KY-SA is to establish a honey production business.
Reasons for honey production.
1) Discrete capital: that KY-SA can control for the express purpose of funding its educational goals for the village.
2) High returns on capital: Rural villages in Africa are poor in capital and the purchasing power that revenue generating capital can bring into the village can make a huge difference to the village's material life. Our budget indicates that 100 Ghana Cedis put into the purchase of beehives will conservatively generate 150 Ghana Cedis per year in revenue.
3) Expertise and experience: The chairman of KY-SA has eight years of experience in honey production after participating in a government sponsored program to promote this activity in the region and currently manages 4 hives.
Plan of Action
1) Donations: KY-SA has budgeted that $900 Australian is required for the purchase of 10 beehives, 1 beekeeping suit and 1 smoker.
2) Employ local artisans: High quality wood will be purchased for the construction of the hives which will ensure a long lifetime and local carpenters will be employed to construct the hives. All the Chairman's previous hives have been built in this way. High quality fabric will be purchased for the beekeeping suits that local seamstresses will be employed to fashion into the appropriate garment.
3) Produce the Honey: Forntunately the bees do a lot of the work but there is substantial time that a beekeeper needs to put in to make sure that the bees are happy and productive and trust their keeper. The job is too great for the chairman alone and he will have to train other community members to maintain some of the hives. Conservatively it is estimated that on average each hive will yield 25 litres of honey annually and achieve a market price of 6 Ghana Cedis per litre. The yield is subject to environmental fluctuations, however to generate 150 Ghana Cedis per year from each hive is a conservative annual estimate.
4) Use of revenues: 10% of revenues will go the beekeepers as labour cost. KY-SA then intends to fund the education of 10 bright but needy students per year; it is estimated that this will cost 700 Ghana Cedis per year. The remainder of the revenues will be used to purchase school supplies for the school as per the teaching materials required list and in bumper years to the purchase more hives.
PROGRESS
2/07/2010 KY-SA is delighted to be able to announce that the desired funds have been raised and that local artisans have now completed the construction of the 10 beehives. KY-SA looks forward to moving on to the next phases of its plan to improve the education available to all children in the village of Abutia-Kloe.
For your viewing pleasure we have attached 3 pictures below of KY-SA members with the beehives produced locally.
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