My name is Dominic Mwangi Gatumu, I am the Executive Founder Trustee/Chairman of Prophet Reward Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization in Kenya founded in 2008. Prophet Reward Foundation (PRF) Charity, is an international organization validated by CAF America to receive USA tax exempt donations and grants.

I am a fulltime community volunteer serving the most marginalized and poor community in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya and surrounding semi -arid communities. At this point we are funded through personal donations to provide for free the basic needs of food, clothing and education to over 600 orphans living in the slums of Nairobi.

Since its registration, Prophet Reward Foundation’s mission is to empower, promote, support, sponsor and educate orphans, vulnerable children, youths, elderly and women through a number of sustainable development projects.

Prophet Reward Foundation is transforming marginalized and poor communities through sustainable development projects. For example, we conducted a successful fundraiser locally and built 10 children's homes for orphans in the slums of Nairobi.

In addition, we offer a volunteer opportunity program for students who come from abroad. Their duties involve; caring for orphans, mentoring street children, caring for the elderly, working on construction projects for community schools, building houses for poor families, and working in local farms to provide food for orphans in children's homes in Nairobi.

We are seeking funding for beekeeping projects in two counties in Kenya to improve the lives of desperately poor communities. Beekeeping would provide a much needed source of income for these communities and allow them to be self sustaining, through sales of honey, and sales of bees to other communities, as well as creating a self sustaining food source through growing food forests which would support the bees through pollinators and providing the local community with a much needed food source.

Below we have outlined a plan for a bee farming project.

BEE FARMING PROJECT

Beekeeping can help communities improve ecosystems and the climate in Kenya in several ways:​​

Pollination: They help increase crop yields and the overall health of ecosystems. This, in turn, reduces the need for energy-intensive agricultural practices and prevents deforestation for expanding farmland.

Biodiversity: Maintaining healthy bee populations contributes to biodiversity. Biodiverse ecosystems are more resilient to environmental changes, including climate change.

Habitat Preservation: Beekeepers often create and maintain bee-friendly habitats. This can involve planting wildflowers and other bee-attracting plants. These practices can help preserve natural habitats and protect against habitat loss due to climate change.

Carbon Sequestration: By promoting healthy ecosystems through pollination and habitat preservation, beekeeping indirectly supports the sequestration of carbon in forests and other natural landscapes.

Sustainable Practices: Many beekeepers employ sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. This includes avoiding the use of pesticides harmful to bees and adopting sustainable hive management techniques.

While beekeeping has a positive impact on mitigating

climate change, it's essential to address the broader climate issues with comprehensive strategies. Nevertheless, the role of bees in pollination and ecosystem health is a valuable contribution to combating climate change.

Prophet Reward Foundation (PRF) is seeking grants to support donations in beekeeping (Apiculture) pilot projects to be implemented in Kitui County eastern Kenya and Kwale County in the coastal region of Kenya both in semi-arid areas. Our aim is to change them from deserts to food and tree forests in fighting against extreme poverty and hunger as a self-sustainable project.

We plan to implement beekeeping as a venture that can sustain our lifestyle, uplift families, improve a community’s economic growth, create jobs, and offer apiculture knowledge to the community. In the future, we also plan to create a regional Apiculture education center to educate and promote Apiculture to communities in Kenya.

We have researched with our member volunteer experts in apiculture and found that the demand for the beekeeping market is increasing dramatically. If our proposal is selected, it will dramatically help in improving the living standards for our marginalized and poor community.

We wish to focus more on the business side of beekeeping to sustain our feeding programs and uplift the lives of less fortunate marginalized people in our regional community.

What Are the Best Plants for Bees???

We wish to produce high-quality nectar producing plants, especially white clovers, sunflower, black and yellow passion fruits, legume trees, bananas, lavender, strawberries, cucumbers, tomato, squash, pumpkins, watermelons, flowering broccolis, tulips and clovers.

The Beekeeping “kilimo biashara” (Swahili for farming business), in the area we intend to implement is in Kwale County in Kenya. It will improve foliage production to feed the bees, make honey to sell and create income that will go towards our feeding programs to benefit orphans and vulnerable children, elderly people and vulnerable families in urban slums of Nairobi and rural villages where we serve.

In Simba Hill forest in Kwale County in Kenya, there are wildflowers, berries, flowering herbs, and a variety of flowering fruits, which bees love. Crops yielding abundant nectar such as sunflowers, coffee, native trees of the forest also make perfect forage materials, with trees such as acacia producing good nectar for sweet honey.

We also intend to establish a beekeeping business by selling stingless bees, which farmers can purchase. To enable us to get the best bee varieties, we shall use the catcher boxes that are used to trap bees and transport them to the new hive by bee gatherers.

In addition, we intend to implement this same beekeeping program in Kitui County, Kenya

APICULTURE PROJECT FOR 200 BEE HIVES.

INITIAL REQUIREMENTS: -

200 Bee Hives constructed from Graveria Tree wood-( can last up to 30 years),using modern apiary construction.$125 x 200 = $25000

Four (4) water boreholes construction each county project two (2) and water piping accessories $23750 x 4= $95000

Forage production (seeds) and bee safe pesticide control management (seeds, fertilizer & pesticides) $5400

Commercial Honey extractor and its apparatus $8000

Harvesting uniform and its apparatus (8) $200 x 8 = $1600

Bees gatherers or trackers $30 x 200 = $6000

Land lease 20 acres x 2 = 40 acres per annum. Other years we have guaranteed purchase of our own lands to make the projects sustainable in the charity property. $40000

We plan to grow a fruit and vegetable garden on the land lease to provide foraging for the bees and provide food supplementation for the community.

First 6 months wages for 60 young youths whom we shall engage in beekeeping projects. $1000 x 60 = $60000

1 farm manager will provided for each county $2000 x 2 = $4000 (6months salary)

Transport for the 6 months $5000

With US $250,000 grant support; we can make a direct impact in improving the living standards for 60 youths employed from marginalized poor communities working on the bee project, with an estimated return of US $150,000 per annum. We will use 40% of the $150,000 to sustain our feeding program for over 600 orphans living in the slums of Nairobi. 60% will be delegated to sustain the beekeeping programs in both counties.

This will have a great impact on these marginalized communities.

If Prophet Reward Foundation receives a Gitcoin grant, this grant funding will create a community relieved of hunger and poverty, improve biodiversity, create

employment and volunteer opportunities. In addition, environmental improvements will be made through tree planting and tree growing, horticulture, growing food and tree forests, increasing bee populations, pollinators and providing clean water to communities in semi-arid deserts.

We appreciate your consideration, involvement and support in joining in our motto of empowering people in changing our community to improve the lives of children, the elderly and desperately poor families in Kitui and Kwale counties in Kenya.

We are inviting and welcoming you all to come and experience the change we are making together.

Sincerely,

Dominic Mwangi Gatumu

Executive Founder Trustee/Chairman

Prophet Reward Foundation (PRF)

https://prophetrewardfoundation.org/

Cell: +254722687755