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“What motivated me to start bee keeping is that, naturally I like honey. Secondly, I came to lean about many ways in which honey can be used – it can be used as food, as medicine, so that has been my motivation to keep bees. To me beekeeping is an income generating activity.”
The Life as Beekeeper
Who belongs to your family / who is living with you?
My name is Milka. I work as sub-county chief and I’m also a member of Honey Pride. I am married, I have a husband and I have 2 children. So, we are 4 in the family.
How has beekeeping changed your life?
Yes, it has changed my life. My first harvest earned money that pleased me. It has started paying the loan I got. I believe that after I finish my loan obligation, I will benefit a lot.
How do you provide a good environment for your bees?
The place where we keep our hives is good, with trees and water source. However, not so many people keep bees in the area.
As a result, there are instances of theft and destruction. Some of my colleagues have lost their hives. But generally, the environment is good.
What do trees mean to you and how can they be protected?
Trees are important. For instance where we are keeping hives, the trees are natural. So those trees support our project. They provide shade, forage etc.
Protecting them is by ensuring no body into that plot to cut the trees. People know it. So that is how the trees have remained undisturbed.
What is the most important thing in your life?
The most important thing in my life now is education. Actually I am using some of the money I generate from bee keeping to upgrade myself. Right now I’m studying, because they want people in our position to be Degree holders.
What are your biggest challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
In the bee keeping project, we have a challenge of theft, lack of capital and also to grow capacity in terms of skills and knowledge in bee keeping. To overcome that challenge, I will need to build my capacity.
What do you like to do in your free time?
When children are at home for holidays, I play with them, we do homework and I have a small business at home that I engage in during the free time.
Which place would you like to see once?
I can’t be specific, but I would like to see a place like a game park, which you can tour with wild animals, with enough natural trees etc. I once visited Lake Mburo National park, but I would want visit another place. It can be in Europe, it can be here in Uganda, it can be in East Africa.
