This Beekeeper Can - Bringing it together

What an exciting campaign full of events, stories and competitions! This year our campaign theme was ‘This Beekeeper Can’ a play on the Nike ‘This Girl Can’. The aim of this campaign was to raise funds to support marginalised groups through beekeeping and showcase some of their incredible achievements. With so much going on, we wanted to bring it all together here to celebrate achievements, provide links to things you might have missed and hopefully get you excited about what we’re up to next!

'This Beekeeper Can' Stories

We shared seven inspiring stories from individuals and communities we work with in the run-up to and during the campaign. These stories really are incredible. Read about the progressive women beekeepers of Nigeria bouncing back from deliberate hive vandalism, how footballers on crutches became beekeepers on crutches in Sierra Leone and the emotional and heartwarming story of the women of The Hive, Tanzania.

• Elizabeti's Story

• Ambassadors of Hope

• Crimes of Colour, a Ray of Hope

• The Unstoppable Women Beekeepers of Nigeria

• Accessible Beekeeping in Sierra Leone

• Sierra Leone: Beekeepers on Crutches

• Dr. Sakina’s Journey: From Childhood Arm Amputation to Beekeeping Leader

The Big Give Christmas Campaign – thank you!

Bees Abroad’s Big Give 2023 campaign was a great success! We raised 102% of our target, thank you!

Not only that but our case study on the campaign won a further £2,000 in unrestricted funds from the Big Give!We shared some truly amazing stories and held two inspiring and informative events. You can catch-up on all of that below.

Informative and Inspiring Online Events

We were lucky enough to have three amazing guest speakers do events with us. We ran events to celebrate the theme of ‘This Beekeeper Can’. We ran two events on this theme.

Accessible Beekeeping: History and Practices

The first event was “Accessible Beekeeping: History and Practices”. At this event our guest speaker, Justin Ruger, the founder of the US based charity, Accessible Beekeeping shared the history of accessible beekeeping, his personal journey, and the practicalities of beekeeping with a disability. 

The Transformative Power of Beekeeping

For our second online event we were joined by two guest speakers.

Sarah Wyndham Lewis, author and co-founder of Bermondsey Street Bees, shared a remarkable tale from Greece where beekeeping revived an isolated rural community.

Our second guest speaker, Stephen Douglas, founder of Pure Buzzin’, shared heart-warming stories of inclusive beekeeping from North Tyneside.

Seven Days, Seven Prizes - Prize Draw

Each day of the Big Give week, we randomly selected a donor who gave to our campaign that day to receive a prize!  To be eligible, you simply had to donate to the Big Give and opt-in to communications.

What was up for grabs?

1. Bee Our Guest – Overnight stay at The Royal Lancaster 

2. The Ritz Afternoon Tea – afternoon tea for two at The Ritz, London

3. The Hive, Selfridges Afternoon Tea – afternoon tea for two at The Hive, Selfridges

4. Nidhoggr Mead – A bottle of traditional mead from Nidhoggr Mead Company

5. Borough Market treats – A Jute bag and cook book from Borough Market 

6. MightyFine Hamper – A tasty chocolate gift box from Mighty Fine

7. Signed copy of “Buzz” – A signed copy of “Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bee” by biologist and award-winning author Thor Hanson

A big Bees Abroad thank you to our Prize Draw donors!

'This Beekeeper Can' on display

A big thank you to the businesses who helped us spread the word that ‘This Beekeeper Can’. Lots of businesses kindly put our campaign postcards and bookmarks on display, some of them include Provision in Bermondsey, From Field and Flower in Borough Market and Morocco Bound Cafe.