Honey Bees and New Business Deals

One of AMA’s most entrepreneurial-minded women’s groups from San Juan La Laguna in Guatemala has been producing organic honey for the past five years. Recently the leader of the group, Ana, came looking for help, traveling four hours by bus to reach the AMA office in Quetzaltenango.Her women’s group is struggling to meet the rising local and international demands for organic honey. Ana has been trying to learn more about local and international fair-trade by attending business classes financed by a small percentage of her group’s honey sales. She learned about micro-finance loans and has turned to AMA for this type of support.

“As women, this promising business opportunity is one of the first that we have had in over a decade. There are so many women in our community that want to learn how to maintain their own honey bee hives; and with the rising demand in production, this is almost possible. The only problem is that we do not have enough money to pay for materials or technical trainings for our members.”

Currently, AMA staff has committed to fundraising enough money to be able to provide a non-interest loan to Ana’s group of honey producers. The loan will buy new hives, technical equipment, professional trainings, and extra start-up capital for new employees. AMA staff say they are happy to provide the loan to a women's group that enthusiastically continues to support each other down the road to economic development and empowerment.

If you would like to donate towards the non-interest loan for AMA’s women’s group to facilitate the growth of their employment and honey production, please visit our page on JustGive.