The Koperatif Apikilte Fondeblan (K.A.F.) , is preparing for its first honey cultivation season. The beekeeping project, made possible by gifts from the Lexington Haiti Committee and Jane and Mike Smeglin, will enable farmers in Fond des Blancs to generate supplemental income for themselves and their families by providing them with the skills, equipment, and organizational training necessary to collectively produce and sell their own honey. A second objective of the program is to help the several dozen beekeepers in the region who already cultivate honey using traditional methods to modernize their practices.

The cooperative’s director, Mars Jean-Louis, has kept bees for 25 years, originally using the traditional method of placing hives inside a hollowed out tree trunk and then modernizing his methods over the past  four years. As head of the beekeeping cooperative, Mr. Jean-Louis acts as a supervisor and a mentor to the project’s 8 novice beekeepers, providing what the cooperative hopes will be a "continuous seminar" for them. His position is unique because he also provides a voice for the cooperative members when the project’s coordinators meet to discuss the progress and goals.

When looking for a place to build the project’s bee boxes, organizers happened upon one of its current novice beekeepers. Saintwain Souhaite, his son and his pregnant wife, were living in a small depot that K.A.F. now uses to store the bee box materials. After helping to move his family into a rented house nearby, Mr. Souhait became one of the hardest working members in the beekeeping cooperative.

K.A.F. hopes that expanding its sales outside of the local Fond des Blancs market will enable the cooperative to continually expand its operations and its membership. More immediately, the project will allow its eight novice beekeepers to decrease their dependency on the region’s nutrient-depleted soil as they supplement their traditional farming methods with a practice that poses to revitalize the region’s vegetation.

By JP Shuster