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Bournemouth schoolgirls create a buzz

Beehives at Avonbourne College Beehives at Avonbourne College

Nectar Sector with a beehiveA group of enterprising year 8 female students at Avonbourne College in Bournemouth have used a £10 grant to raise an incredible £2,164 which they have invested in a beekeeping enterprise. And once their new hives begin to produce nectar, they intend to sell their honey to raise funds for Farm Africa.

The girls, who have organised themselves into a team called 'The Nectar Sector', decided to set up their beekeeping enterprise after they learned that the UK’s beekeeping population had gone into decline. And they decided to raise money for Farm Africa after reading an article in The Guardian which described how we are helping young people in rural Ethiopia to develop livelihoods through beekeeping and the sale of honey.

The students are all members of the school’s Young Enterprise Programme which challenges young teenagers to take a £10 loan and do something which is both enterprising and makes a difference to their community.

The girls took their £10 and got their business up and running straight away. They made bee themed badges and key-rings to raise further funds, and set up a cake sale too. They have used the proceeds, together with generous funding from the local Green Goals Community Fund, to turn their original £10 grant into £2,146.

They’ve invested the money into a hive and bee suits as well as securing professional maintenance of the hive over the next year. And when their bees start to produce honey, the girls will get down to selling it to raise funds for Farm Africa which is helping communities in both Tanzania and Ethiopia to set up small-scale sustainable beekeeping businesses.

Samrawit and the Nectar Sector

Avonbourne College have been supporting Farm Africa since 2005 and in that time they have raised an amazing £1,521.07. Sarah Goddard from the fundraising team and Samrawit Sintayehu our Communications Officer in Ethiopia visited the school on Tuesday 17 June to give a talk about our work and meet the girls from The Nectar Sector.

We are thrilled that Avonbourne College and the Nectar Sector have chosen to support Farm Africa through this wonderful environmental project, and would like to thank everyone involved at the school for their continued generous support. 

Samrawit with members of The Nectar Sector, from left to right Lucy Cox-O’Rourke, Edlina Prior and Katie Butcher.

 

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