South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2006 | April | 28
From the archive, first published Friday 28th Apr 2006.
THORNBURY schoolboy Edward Moore has been busy this week - buzzing up and down the swimming pool at Thornbury Leisure Centre raising cash for bees.
The 12-year-old clocked up 40 lengths of the 30-metre pool and raised £135 for locally-based charity Bees Abroad (UK), which seeks to relieve poverty in the developing world through beekeeping.
Edward's mum Jules Moore has been keeping bees for four years and works for the charity.
"I get so many applications for help that Edward decided he wanted to raise some money himself," said Mrs Moore.
Bees Abroad was established in 1999 by a small group of like-minded beekeepers.
"It's about more than just beekeeping," said the charity's chairman coincidentally named Jeff Bee (corr), of Rudgeway. "It also means learning about nutrition, health, business development and environmental protection."
The charity helps to promote beekeeping as a sustainable form of agriculture and trains local people in proper techniques including hive construction using affordable materials. New keepers are also put in touch with reliable markets for their honey.
Claire Waring, one of the eight founding trustees based across the UK, said beekeeping encouraged people to plant new trees and protect existing forests.
"We are not trying to tell people in Nepal and Africa how they should carry out their beekeeping," she said. "It's much more about people and their own initiative and there's lots of initiative out there already."
Current projects include ones in Nepal, Malawi and Kenya and Cameroon where the income from one beehive can send a child to primary school for a whole year.
For further information visit www.beesabroad.org.uk or call 01454 418038 or write to Bees Abroad, PO Box 2058, Bristol BS35 9AF.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008