Guerlain Partners With Angelina Jolie and UNESCO to Empower Women

Lindsay Judge   |   08-03-2021

Guerlain has joined forces with UNESCO and Angelina Jolie to empower women by caring for bees.

 

As a close friend of the Maison and a great supporter promotion of beekeepers at Guerlain Angelina Jolie is the perfect woman to join the Women For Bees programme taking place in Guerlain’s Biosphere Reserves. Led with the help of the French Observatory of Apidology (OFA) the programme will support beekeepers from Russia to Ethiopia to Cambodia.

 

Credit: Nathan Wiley – Workhouse

 

“When women gain skills and knowledge their instinct is to help raise others. I’m excited to meet the women taking part in this programme from all over the world. I look forward to getting to know them and learning about their culture and environment and the role bees play in that. I hope the training will strengthen their independence, their livelihoods and their communities.” Said Angelina Jolie.

 

Beginning on 21st June 2021 and running over five years, the 30-day training programme taking place at the OFA located in the “Massif de la Sainte-Baume” in Provence – France, will welcome fifty women in total, from five different UNESCO biosphere reserves each year.

 

Credit: Nathan Wiley – Workhouse

 

Each participant will acquire the theoretical and practical bases of the various aspects of beekeeping, including the running of a professional apiary thanks to the OFA Beekeepers’ expertise.

 

Credit: Nathan Wiley – Workhouse

 

The objective is to empower women through expertise-driven and sustainable professional activity. At the end of the training, the participants will have acquired all the protocols allowing them to sustain their bee colonies, become fully professional beekeeper-entrepreneurs as well as members of an international network of female beekeepers, and share their skills and knowledge to help train others.

 

By 2025, 2,500 hives will have been built within 25 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and 125 million bees will have been restocked. The 50 women to graduate by that year will have been trained and supported in establishing their own beekeeping operations – whilst participating in a vital, socially beneficial project.

TAGS