Iryna and her family now live in one of the villages of the Kulikiv community in Chernihiv Oblast. Previously, she worked at a call center in Chernihiv. The war in Ukraine radically changed the life of a young woman: going abroad with her 9-year-old son Oleksiy and her niece, illness, return, treatment and remission, and the discovery of a new hobby - beekeeping, which gives strength and supports the family.
But Iryna's family received help within the framework of the agricultural support project implemented by the public organization "Association for Democratic Development" in partnership with ZOA in Ukraine financed by the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine (UHF). Thanks to this, the family bought a honey plant.
"My brother and a friend had an apiary before the war. Now they cannot continue their business, so we began to take care of the bees. I discovered so much new things for myself. And the purchase of honey extractor became such a find for us!", says Iryna. After all, earlier it was necessary to pump honey out of honeycombs manually, now it happens automatically. The woman emphasizes that this is key equipment that made their work more efficient.
Everyone works together at the apiary - both husband, son-schoolboy, and Iryna. "I wouldn't do it myself", she notes. Her family has already increased the apiary to 23 bee colonies and plans to expand. While honey and beekeeping products are sold to neighbors and wholesalers, although they have plans to supply them to the market.
Iryna is glad that there is an opportunity to have support from an international organization, because beekeeping is often overlooked by donors. In her opinion, this branch of agriculture — is very important, but now it has many problems - these are mined fields and chemicals that lead to the death of bees. "I would like both the state and international partners to pay attention to beekeeping in Ukraine and support beekeepers", the resident of the Kulikiv community emphasized.
ZOA in Ukraine
