The beekeeper of Rwanda

Stani Gebala is a beekeeper. He teaches farmers in Rwanda how to build modern beehives capable of producing ten times more honey than traditional models. Unsurprisingly, his lessons became oversubscribed after his fame spread amongst the agricultural workers of the troubled country. That is, until the money ran out.

A remakarble group took up his cause. 80 Percent Angel is a community of filmmakers who see it as their mission to document the good deeds and best practice in the developing nations and then give them a wider audience through online streaming video.

After just over a year in operation, the company have 17 filmakers in six countries working on films in six languages. Their content is open source because they have the goal of building a worldwide community of artists who pool their talent for for social good.

After publicising Stani’s work on YouTube and idealist.org, he found the funding he required to continue his important contribution to Rwandan life.

What interests me about 80 Percent, is their ability to harness new channels of communication for their cause. They claim that they are predominantly targetting an ‘educated, western audience who only have a few minutes to consume media each day.” Whilst their work seems gauche in parts, I now know a lot more about bee keeping in Rwanda.