Sweet future for Braso Seco youths

Winston Maraj, secretary of the association and project manager of Apiary Business said the project places strong emphasis on getting the youth in the area involved in order to prevent the area from developing a high percentage of delinquent youths.

“In Brasso Seco a lot of the youths are unemployed. If they work, they work for the government, or as a security guard or a cleaner. We want to create entrepreneurship, business activity, to stimulate growth.” He said initially project members approached the Police Youth Club in the community but, since they were dealing with Africanised killer bees, the parents did not want the children to participate. They therefore encouraged anyone in the area who was 18 and over to visit their operation, taste the honey, and learn about bee-keeping. He said most bee-keepers were very secretive about their trade and did not want to teach others, but they try to involve interested parties in every stage, from building the frames for the boxes serving as hives to bottling the honey.

According to Maraj, the project started because the resident bee-keeper in the association, Matthew Lopez, kept insisting that other members try the profitable practice.

“Most of us are farmers so we didn’t think that the forest would give us anything. We usually cut land down and plant christophine, cocoa, vegetables or citrus, but now we realise the forest itself is full of money.” Maraj said in 2013, he and his sister went to an apiary course at the Ministry of Agriculture at the Government Apiary in Wallerfield. On their encouragement, a few more members of the association decided to attend the next cycle of class. However, because the five-day course would take them away from their fields, as well as the added expense of travelling to and from Wallerfield, other farmers declined and instead got their practical knowledge from those who attended the course.

“Marlon Cowie- Clarke from Tobago has been instrumental in the process. He teaches us and helps us with the honey. He helps with the technical aspects and lends us his equipment, like the extractor, until we get on our feet. He really is a good fellow and a good bee-keeper too.” He said there was a large area of natural forest in Brasso Seco so they knew the bees would have done well and made excellent quality honey. The association began looking for funds to start the apiary business.

Last year, the project was initiated when Digicel gave the new bee-keepers $65,000, with which they bought bees, protective gear, and made hives. The Canadian Embassy also gave them money for a solar system to produce electricity to pump water up to the hives in the dry season, as well as to run their machinery.

They also received a small grant from the United Nations to set up a rain water harvesting system. This year, Digicel promised them $101,000, most of which they intend to use to purchase machinery to produce their honey.