Gideon Apiary, is composed of dedicated, innovative and hardworking members who decided to venture into apiculture, rabbit keeping and liquid soap production as a way of improving their household income base.

The Self Help Group (SHG) which was formed in 2018, is made of 13 members from Wabayi village in Gwanda district.

Before being involved in HIHZ Self Help Group concept, the members revealed that they had limited knowledge on means of adapting to the harsh climatic conditions.

“Initially, we hardly brainstormed on sustainable ways of living,” narrated one of the group members, adding joining HIHZ became an eye opener for them.

They received support ranging from business management and bee keeping training to hardware support through provision of bee-hives.

The group, which now saves R20 per month at 10% interest rate, has managed to shield itself from climate change shocks through diversifying their apiculture enterprise with cuniculture and liquid soap production.

To date, Gideon farmers man three colonised bee-hives, 21 rabbits and enjoy R500 monthly returns from liquid soap production.

The group endures rapid change of the climate system that continues to disturb the performance of their projects.

“The occurrence of drought exacerbated by climate change has affected our apiculture enterprise as it has limited bee activity,” said one of the farmers.

Gideon Apiary farmers indicated that it is part of their future plans to channel more effort towards increasing production across all their enterprises by about 10 to 20% per annum.

“Thanks to HIHZ for the support you gave to us. Now we are empowered and able to make wise decisions at household and community level. We are now able to pay for our children’s school fees on time,” said Joe Mpande, the group chairperson.