by Karthikeyan.
Ojok Simon and I come from two continents, and we first met at kanthari nearly a decade ago. Since then, we have been working on the realisation of our dream projects.
Ojok comes from Gulu, a city in the Northern part of Uganda. As a young child, he grew up in war torn country. When he was only 9 years old, rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army tried to kidnap him so he could be used as a child soldier. The rebels slapped him with the back of a rifle on both sides of his temple, so hard that it caused internal injury. Due to lack of proper and timely medical attention, Ojok gradually lost his sight.
I come from Pondicherry where I grew up in an orphanage along-side intellectually and physically disabled children. After studying psychology and witnessing how disabled people in India are denied opportunities for growth, education, employment, independence, and respect, I knew that I needed to do something. I founded Sristi Village whose mission is to provide the disabled with education and opportunities and ensure that they are treated with dignity and respect. Now, Sristi Village includes eco-friendly housing for all residents, a school for disabled children, a vocational training centre and a self-sustaining organic farm. But something was still missing. Beehives!
Well, here is where Ojok comes into the picture. Following his passion, Ojok founded HIVE Uganda, an organisation that trains people who are visually impaired in the art of beekeeping. Till date, he has empowered 150 blind and visually impaired people in Gulu and another 95 will be trained soon. This has already resulted in a mindset shift of the society who used to look down upon the disabled and the blind. Now, being beekeepers, and therewith having become breadwinners in the family they are treated with respect.
When we graduated at kanthari, we shared a wish to meet each other again one day, and now in September 2021, when Ojok came to visit us here at Sristi Village, this wish finally became a reality.
Immediately we started sharing crazy memories of the time we spent at kanthari, and it felt like it all happened yesterday. And we shared tons of experiences that we gained from all corners of life in the years that followed.
Ojok visited Sristi Community to get a taste of community living, to study the eco-system and the life of honeybees in our area.
Having 15-year of experience working with honeybees around the world, Ojok found that many honey-bees have made the green Sristi community their home. He said that it would be an ideal place to add some beehives with the goal to harvest honey and bee-wax.
Ojok’s advice in the process of handcrafting seven new beehives which was done by our team and with the support of a donor, as well was as identifying the right location to put the hives, was crucial.
The honey that the bees will produce will directly benefit all Sristi Community Members.
Furthermore, we can make Sristi Village a hotspot for learning beekeeping.
The few days that we were together were extremely fruitful and it shows the power of alliance with communities around us. Earth keeps journeying in the cosmos, so does our friendship.
If kantharis club their ideas, the result can be found in impactful social transformation.
Thank you Ojok and thank you kanthari.
Karthik
More Infos:
Sristi Village; http://sristivillage.org/
HIVE Uganda: http://www.hiveuganda.org
