A woman with a good heart discovers damage to the environment

Ask Judith Bartchelar | Blog

Judith Bartchellar is a woman with a good heart. The woman responsible for all of Sainsbury's own brand products helps to make Fairtrade part of Briton's everyday shopping habits. 

She also volunteers her time to charitable courses - one of many Britons who donate their time, including to the good course of fighting hunger and poverty in poorer parts of the world.  But when Leadership Council Industry co-chair, traveled to Tanzania in company of other women, to help build beehives that will help produce honey for the locals recently, what she found shocked her.

Below courtesy of Sainsbury's, we publish her latest blog. After reading this, perhaps we can begin to understand some other underlining reason behind the recent wave of migrants willing to risk it all against the odds.  Read her article below:

How many women does it take to make a beehive?

Apparently nine. Last week I embarked on a challenge in Tanzania with eight other business women to do just that, and built 90 beehives within a remote area in Nou Forest, in support of Farm Africa, the charity that works to end hunger in eastern Africa.

We hope the hives will be used to kick-start profitable and sustainable honey farming businesses for the area.

Whilst Nou Forest has a diverse plant, animal and insect life, Tanzania is losing forests at a disastrous rate of 300,000 hectares every year – around 1,500 football fields every day. As forest loss reduces water supply for local communities, they struggle to grow enough food to eat and turn to cutting down trees for income to survive – a vicious circle destroying the very resource they need to survive for the long-term.

We were drawn to this area as the forest is home to millions of bees, and bee-keeping is a forest-friendly business that enables communities to make money without cutting down more trees.

But for women the traditional-style beehives, situated high in the trees, are inaccessible as it’s not culturally acceptable to climb trees. That’s why Farm Africa has introduced the Langstroth beehive, a type of that can be placed on the ground and used by women. Harvesting the precious honey will bring the women a new and valuable source of income that will enable them to pay for clothes, medicines and school fees for their children.

Read the full article and or give your opinion, click >>( here ).

* Judith Bartchelar is the Director of Sainsbury's Brand at Sainsbury's.