“With the profits from this sale, I’ll build a better life for my children,” said Fayda. Fayda’s older son, Ali, 7, looks on as the customers come and go. “I want them to go to school and grow up to be leaders.”

But this honey business is about more than just profits. Fayda’s women’s cooperative and others like it are working to transform communities all over the Bethlehem area.

Research shows that women’s empowerment often depends directly upon an ability to draw upon independent sources of income. With an independent income, women are more likely to take up leadership roles. Today, Fayda’s other three children (Areej, 5, Buruj, 4, Ali, 4, and Amar at just one month) are at home with their father.

“Usually, I stay home with the children and my husband goes out to work,” said Fayda, “Today we have reversed roles! He is home with the children and I am here with my own business.”

With the profits from this sale, I’ll build a better life for my children

“World Vision strives for economic empowerment of women as a basic cornerstone in sustainable development of communities. We don’t just support them with a small project like beekeeping, but we build their capacity and upgrade their skills so they can better manage their business and market their products,” said Rana Qumsiyeh, ADP Manager for Bethlehem.

The cooperative is also working hard to save traditional Palestinian land from expropriation. In May, the United Nations warned that 86,000 settlers were living in 35 illegal settlements and outposts in Bethlehem governorate. Illegal Israeli settlers will often capture idle land because Israeli authorities are less likely to intervene when land is not being used for agriculture. World Vision has found that Palestinians have lacked the capital and technical knowledge to develop natural resources around Bethlehem, and large pieces of land have been left idle and vulnerable to settlers. By helping villagers use the land for honey production and other reclamation projects, World Vision is helping to deter unjust and illegal settlement expansion.

“What we’ve found is that we can sow the seeds of a brighter future for communities by simply empowering them to develop their own natural resources,” said Ms. Qumsiyeh.

But one of the greatest results of the World Vision project has been the renewed cooperation between the southern Bethlehem villagers and the government. The Ministry of Agriculture was so impressed by the harvest and momentum of the cooperatives, that the government has pledged 50,000 new trees to be planted in the area. These trees not only play a critical role in the preservation of the environment in Bethlehem; they also bear the flowers which bees use to make the sweetest honey.

All in all, World Vision’s Bethlehem Women’s Empowerment project is a sweet deal for Bethlehem, for Palestine, for Fayda, and for the many children like Ali who will grow up in a more prosperous and more just community.

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