Bee-ing Round Square

Posted: 10 April 2022

This year, Round Square’s International Service (RSIS) Project is all about discovering that we can make a big difference through many small actions when we work together on a global scale.

Around the world, students in RS schools are fundraising, learning about bees, and promoting bee welfare, in support of the ‘One Million Beehives’ Campaign, founded in South Africa by Lesego Serelong Hozapfel, former pupil of Round Square School Tiger Kloof, through her social enterprise Bokamoso Impact Investments.

When she was a student at Tiger Kloof, Lesego was very involved with Round Square and attended the RS International Conference. She says that her experiences at Tiger Kloof and with Round Square became her inspiration for wanting to make a positive difference in the world. “It just goes into your heart, and you appreciate where you are”, she says.

The One Million Beehive Campaign’s Bee Loved Honey is making a positive and sustainable difference not just to the environment but also to the prosperity of Lesego’s local community in South Africa. Her organisation helps impoverished families in the local community to lift themselves out of poverty by getting them started, and supporting them, in the bee-keeping business. Bokamoso provides a sales outlet, via Bee Loved Honey, for the honey they produce.

Not only does this programme provide families with sustainable income, but it is also looking after the bee population, which in turn looks after the crops that provide the community’s food… and contribute to the worldwide effort to protect our bees.

Lesego is also co-founder of Raise the Children International, a non-profit company that funds and coordinates a programme of secondary boarding school opportunities for orphans from rural areas. Her aim is to support young people whose stories are similar to her own.

In support of Lesego and her ‘One Million Beehives’ Campaign, students at Round Square Schools across the world are planning fundraising campaigns to raise money to buy beehives. Schools are then making pledges of the number of beehives they plan to pay for (one beehive costs ZAR 1,750 / US$115).

Roedean School in South Africa, recently hosted a Bee-themed Fundraising and activity Day, for which students paid a fee to dress in black and yellow, crocheted (and then auctioned), an enormous bee, and created a photo booth through which they shared on Instagram their thoughts on the theme of “Bee Kind”. Lesego spoke at the event and there was a stall selling Bee Loved honey.

Radford College in Australia has been successfully raising funds through a ‘Sausage Sizzle’, banking almost enough to buy 5 beehives already. And in the UK, at AKS Lytham, Year 7 has started a ‘bee bracelet’ workshop and Year 9 organised a movie night (showing the Bee Movie) for which a local jeweller donated a bee necklace to auction at the event. Year 9 students are also making seed parcels to leave on benches in their local area. Each has a tag asking the person that finds it to support local bee populations by scattering the seeds in their garden, and sharing to a campaign on social media.

Our 2022 RSIS Project in support of One Million Beehives launched in March and already more than 50 schools are busy planning and carrying out their fundraising and awareness-raising campaigns. Over the next few weeks, we will be connecting RS schools on Zoom for a Beginners’ Guide to Beekeeping, and will be taking them on a virtual visit to Lesego’s farm when she presents “Live from the Hive”. Finally, students will present their own “Live from the Hive” from the beehives at their own schools.

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