The project, promoted and supported by the ‘Opera Don Bosco Onlus’ Foundation, was created to accompany the Salesians of Rwanda on a journey that combines education, work and the future. The Great Lakes region, which includes Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, remains marked by a complex past and daily challenges that are still very difficult: poverty, economic fragility and a lack of opportunities, especially for young people.
In this context, the Salesians of Don Bosco propose an idea of development based on beekeeping, capable of strengthening the self-sufficiency of socio-educational activities and, at the same time, promoting youth entrepreneurship.
Father Pierre Célestin Ngoboka, a Salesian missionary in Rwanda, said: ‘Here, young people need real opportunities: to learn a trade, to work together, to generate value. Bees teach us that we only grow by building community. Honey is the result, but the real wealth is the trust that comes when someone far away decides to believe in you.’
Launched with the support of the Foundation at the beginning of 2024, the ‘Ndiza – Don Bosco Beekeeping Project’ (Salesian Beekeeping Project – Ndiza, named after the location hosting the project) began operating at the beginning of 2025 thanks to the prompt response of benefactors, with the first hives and the start of honey production.
The project involves the construction of four modern apiaries (approximately 100 hives each), the introduction of local young people to beekeeping as a source of income and micro-enterprise, and the development of new forage tree crops, with benefits for the environment and pollination.
Michele Rigamonti, President of the Opera Don Bosco Onlus Foundation, said: ‘Supporting the Salesians in Rwanda means investing in an idea for the future. With this project, young people become protagonists: beekeeping is a tool for strengthening the self-sufficiency of socio-educational works and, at the same time, for creating entrepreneurship in a country that is building a different tomorrow, while still facing poverty and a lack of opportunities.’
From October 2025 until the Feast of Don Bosco, the children of the Sant’Ambrogio Primary School in Milan, accompanied by their Salesian mentor, Fr Bruno Baldiraghi, teachers and educators, with the support of their families, embarked on a journey to learn about the missionary project in Rwanda and actively support it, learning what it means to be part of a community that looks beyond its own borders.
Valentina Cattaneo, Primary School Coordinator, said, ‘We wanted the children not just to “know” that missionary projects exist, but to learn to feel close to them. Knowing, asking questions, understanding and then acting: even a small gesture, such as preparing a jar of honey, can become a profound educational experience.’
For the feast of Don Bosco, the children received honey produced in Rwanda by the young people involved in the project and, with the help of their teachers and educators, packaged it in jars: a simple way to taste a delicacy that carries with it a story of redemption and shared responsibility.
Fr Alessandro Ticozzi, Rector of Sant’Ambrogio, concluded by emphasising another significant aspect of the entire project: ‘Educating children to missionary sensitivity means educating their gaze: it helps them recognise that the world is bigger than their everyday lives and that solidarity is a concrete responsibility. If this is instilled from an early age, it becomes a stable way of being, not a one-off event.’
{gallery}ILE – Miele dal Rwanda 2026{/gallery}
