Where it started
Beekeeping was one of GIFT’s earliest enterprise projects. GIFT volunteers ran the first training and funded hives, smokers and honey separators. Beekeepers from Northern Ireland have supported the work with funding and advice for more than ten years, and some have travelled out to share their experience.
The Honey Centre
On the coast near Gede, a GIFT-funded training programme has reached six local beekeeping groups. It is managed by a graduate whose studies GIFT supported. The Honey Centre opened around 2023–24 and sells honey, lip balm, shampoo, body scrub, polish and beeswax wraps. In January 2025 its manager went on a week-long course, and new products followed within weeks. The centre now employs new staff, and all of its profits go to the community.
Bees and mangroves
GIFT has funded mangrove replanting. In 2025 it funded a new apiary for the Jipe Moyo Mangrove Group, with a safe “escape room” for the beekeepers. The sign at the site reads “Jipe Moyo Mangrove Group Apiary: supported by GIFT International”.
Beekeepers training beekeepers
In October 2024 a group of Maasai women in Laikipia asked for help to start beekeeping. In 2025 the coast honey team ran a five-day exchange to train them, so the knowledge GIFT helped build is now being passed on by Kenyans to Kenyans.
In May 2026 GIFT was one of the sponsors of the Ilamaiyo Bee Run, a 10 km race in Laikipia held for World Bee Day in support of local students’ running clubs.
