Beekeeping to economically empower persons with Disability (BEEPwDs) With support from The National Lottery Community Fund, TUNADO and Bees for Development (BfD) have been implementing a pilot project; Beekeeping to economically empower persons with disabilities in Uganda (BEEPwDs). The two-year (2019-2020 with a COVID19 extension of one year) project is implemented in Gulu and Jinja districts of Uganda, and aims at economically empowering PWDs through beekeeping. The project targets 30 persons with disabilities, with a focus on persons with visual impairment (15) in Gulu and the Deaf (15) in Jinja. The project has three outputs namely:

• TUNADO and Bees for Development become Disability-Inclusive Organizations.
• Opportunities for PwDs to participate in beekeeping sub-sector developed.
• Beekeeping-specific adaptive skills training developed and applied, for people with visual and hearing impairments.

So far all targeted project beneficiaries (30) have been trained in beekeeping, all of them have already established apiaries and are engaged in different activities in beekeeping, those in Gulu, have already secured market for their honey and about half of the beneficiaries have started harvesting and selling honey. More than that, the project has spilled over to more 10 (ten) persons with disabilities (04 persons with visual impairment in Gulu and 8 Deaf in Jinja). By learning from the direct beneficiaries, they have adopted beekeeping as a livelihood option, far exceeding the initial target of 30 beneficiaries. Four (04) guides for four visually impaired beneficiaries in Gulu have also benefitted indirectly and joined the beekeeping sector.