Sister Dee has been producing honey to supplement the diets of the HIV+ residents at the Santa Maria hospice she coordinates at Pajapita, San Marcos, Guatemala for several years. Currently, she has 35 hives located on a secure site provided by a local landowner. The site is well away from farmers who use chemical pesticides on their maize fields and is located near excellent flowering rubber, coffee and indigenous trees. It is also between two rivers that provide the bees with water close by thus reducing their stress.

Over the past few years, the increased use of pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficits, air pollution, global warming and more, mean bee populations have been falling globally and Guatemala is no exception. Dee wishes to expand the number of her hives to 85 thereby increasing the local bee population and protecting the environment. The extra honey will also enable her to improve the diets of the local community where many of the people with HIV reside and also increase sales locally. All funds raised from these sales are used to help support the hospice financially; always a challenge year by year.

The first harvest of 2022 took place at the end of January and there will be three or four further harvests during the next few months. The January harvest provided 35 litres of honey that, after the deduction of production costs, will raise £200. Dee estimates that the other harvests should produce a further 400 litres worth nearly £2,300.

With your help Dee can achieve her aim of increasing her honey production. The funds raised will all go towards the running of the hospice and will be supplemented by the money raised from the sale of other products on the 3-acre hospice farm. These include melons, plantain, oranges, lemons, cassava and bananas; eggs from the 600 chickens, fish from the four tanks of the fish farm and compost from the vermiculture unit.

Why not support Dee's dream of expanding her bee production by purchasing a hive? These cost £50 each and this includes the costs of the hive with three boxes, wax combs, 12 frames for each hive, locks and a mabati (corrugated iron sheet) to provide protection from the rain. If you wish, we will add your name to your hive .

SHOCC, the St Mary's University charity (Reg No:1120787) has been supporting the Santa Maria Hospice since its opening 20 years ago. We raised funds for the hospice construction, purchased land for the 3-acre farm and provided a hydrotherapy pool for the patients. We are supporting the 200 family kitchen garden project and the 100 women who are training to become local legal practitioners. We are also funding Santos's university studies in agronomy. All donations to this campaign will be sent directly to Dee without any deductions as SHOCC is run completely by volunteers. Together we can achieve Dee's dream of 85 hives.

Thank you for your support.

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