Teaching at the local secondary school
The undergraduate I.T. students also interacted with the school students of G.D.S.S. Yelwa. For an entire term (4 months) they contributed to teaching English language, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, agricultural Science, and basic science and technology. This is an example of how the Project interacts with the community to benefit youth.
“Ngel-Nyaki is a blessing! I.T students from Nigeria Montane Forest Project (NMFP) Ngel Nyaki, came to assist with teaching at the Government Day Secondary School YELWA.” Quote from school student on Facebook
Nursery School
The NMFP continue to support the nursery school. Misa Zubairu leads this initiative and 2019 has seen special attention paid to the girls (see photo). The TY Danjuma Foundation, who support the school financially, paid a visit and were obviously impressed with what they saw.
Ndombo Ngishi School
Ndombo Ngishi is a small hamlet neighbouring the lower slopes of Ngel Nyaki forest reserve. There is very little room for farming in the area, with slash and burn having already depleted most of the resources outside of the reserve. The NMFP is linking with the Ndombo Ngishi community through employment of staff but also by providing some basic education to those in the village who need it. It is a three hour trek up-hill to the nearest school in Yelwa; to help, we have provided resources for a basic nursery school. Pictured, Usman teaching the children at Ndombo Ngishi.
Honey production (Beyond Bees)
We have tried very hard to find external funding for our bee keeping operation, but so far have been unsuccessful. Part of the problem is that we are based in Taraba State and some potential funders are concerned they may not easily be able to visit the project and assess progress.
Regardless, following on from Ridwan Jafar’s meetings with apiculturists at the APIEXPO AFRICA in Abuja last year (see 2018 Annual Report), this year we worked with Mr. Johnson Oluwaseun, an apiculturist based in Abuja, to develop a strategy that would allow us to continue on with Beyond Bees.
To this end Johnson ran two three day workshops at Ngel Nyaki on basic bee keeping, to which bee keepers from local communities were invited. At the workshops, aimed at empowering local communities around the forest reserve through bee keeping, Mr Johnson taught basic bee keeping techniques and discussed honey, bees wax and propolis processing for Apis- therapy.
The model we are using is based on the premise that the honey produced from local communities will be bought and processed by the Project.
We will then sell-on the honey to Abuja and Lagos, allowing us to become increasingly self-sustainable.
With guidance and introduction to markets from our Board member John Adeleke, we hope to begin honey production on a relatively large commercial scale. Without doubt Johnson’s workshops have led to an increasing awareness by the local community of the ecosystem services provided by their forest reserve and an increasing intent to conserve the forest for future generations. One of the Chinese produced wooded beehives we are now using at Ngel Nyaki.
The hives are small enough to be moved from the forest into more secure areas once honey has been made. They are light weight and strong.
A comment by one attendee on our Facebook page: “I have learned a lot from that program. How I wish everyone would understand the importance of the forest as I do!! I just hope one day everybody would see the forest as his own and be willing to protect it with his life.” Zubairu Mohammed Shekarau, Yelwa