Swaziland Fall08

Returning almost 2 years after we lived there, we were reminded that Swaziland is truly a beautiful country. We spent a bit of time with friends but
mostly Rick taught his class and Wendy visited clients. See below for pictures of a pepper farm which supports an orphanage, HIV/AIDS clinic, school and church;
and the factories where Eswatini Swazi Kitchens creates its jams and chutneys and ESK Honey processes honey that help underwrite the Manzini Youth Center.
See below the pictures for more details on each client.

*Eswatini Swazi Kitchens*	*ESK Honey Processing*	*St. Phillips Pepper Farm*

All sorts of jams, chutneys, pickles, and sauces (Above L) from Swaziland-grown crops are processed at the factory and sold retail (Above R) in Swaziland and Europe to support an HIV/AIDS youth center in Manzini, SZD.	ESK Honey (Above L) is related to Eswatini now through its mission, upper management, and some operations (Above R).	St. Phillips staff (Above L) runs schools, orphanage (Above R), and medical clinics. By contract-growing peppers, starting Fall 2007, they have a reliable revenue source that employs local people in villages deeply affected by HIV/AIDS.


Fruits are prepped (Above L) and (Above R) bottles are cleaned.	(Above L) Products have been extended through gift packaging. But it alls starts with honey (Above R) harvested from local beekeepers.	Their students (Above L) also learn how to grow some of their own food. TechnoServe staff (Above R) teaches the St. Phillips staff modern farming methodology.


Fruits are cooked (Above L) and sauces are stirred (Above R) by a TechnoServe colleague/visitor.	The honey is cooked (Above L) and bottled (Above R) in pretty simple ways that TechnoServe will modernize over time.	Starting in Fall 2008, TechnoServe is helping St. Phillips grow cabbage (Above L), a new crop for them ,to provide additional income. The fields are already primed (Above R) with only need for extra weeding.


(Above L) Spices are stored but kept up-to-date according to testing guidelines (Above R).	Due to several problems, the Swazi bee population has diminished so TechnoServe is recruiting and training beekeepers across the country at a school (Above L & R).	The special peppers are harvested (Above L) and processed carefully with gloves and masks (Above R) to prevent touching and inhaling toxic fumes.


(Above L) There is on-site quality control equipment as well as basic shelf-life testing (Above R).	Training includes making beehives (Above L & R) to maximize honey production.	These peppers must follow a methodology for mashing (Above L) and storing (Above R) product to qualify for their contract.


TechnoServe will help profitability by leveraging new investments (Above L), improving operations (Above R) and finding new markets.	Also beekeepers (Above L) are taught how to keep healthy bees (Above R), maintain hives, and leverage crops for the best honey production.	Eventually, peppers are sent to their distributor for further fermentation (Above L) and bottling at the secret site of the internationally renowned pepper sauce company.

The Cabrini Monks from Italy founded St. Phillips School in 1927 in one of Swaziland’s poorest, most remote areas. Sister Diane and Sister Barbara arrived at St. Phillips in 1971 then began a medical clinic in 1974 so that locals did not have to spend hours and entire weekly salaries to travel to the closest treatment. Now their clinic is focused on HIV/AIDS and to a lesser extent TB, clinically managing up to 1,400 active patients, particularly to ensure they take their medicines. St. Phillips’ dormitory supports 140 children with food and shelter during the school week. Plus they pay school fees for another 100 vulnerable children living in nearby homes. St. Phillips’ farm also employs 5 full-time local staff and 50 part-time workers for up to 2 week periods at peak weeding and harvesting. St. Phillips is mainly funded from profits of Australia’s Good Shepherd Hospitals which support about 40 different international locations. In Sept. 2007, the Sisters’ analysis determined that their farm must become profitable or they must stop growing the crops which fill in revenue gaps and their orphanage’s food needs. TechnoServe assessed the farm, determined that hot peppers would grow well, and connected St. Phillips with the African processor of a branded well-known hot pepper sauce. As a result, St. Phillips’ farm has planted their second hot pepper crop in fall 2008 along with commercially growing tomatoes, butternut squash, cabbage and spinach. Within the plowed, planted and weeded pepper fields it is virtually no extra cost to grow cabbages in rows between. The approx. $16,000 netted from the first pepper crop has been well-applied to support the orphanage.

A church in Manzini, Swaziland founded Eswatini Swazi Kitchen in 1991 to create a source of funding for the Manzini Youth Center. They process mostly local and/or traditional jams, chutneys, and hot sauces including orange marmalade, marula jam, ginger mango chutney, and Swazi hot pepper sauce. Eswatini started a related business, ESK Honey, about 10 years later, to produce both raw and creamed raw honey. In the last couple of years, ESK has been working with Swazi Candles, another local manufacturer, to create gift packs with beeswax candles, honey, and honey soap. Under Europe’s Fair Trade initiative, some of both Eswatini and ESK’s products are sold to large customers in France, Germany, Netherlands, Austria (Oxfam), U.K. and Sweden. The Fair Trade initiative has also led to new Eswatini and ESK customers through the U.S. Fancy Foods trade show. Africa Development Fund and a couple of other international funds supplement product sales to pay for factory operations, training of beekeepers and small-holder farmers, transportation, etc. TechnoServe Swaziland began working with ESK Honey as a client in mid- 2007 and Eswatini Kitchens, mid-2008, to turn around some serious constraints, e.g., hand-labeling for even typical orders of over 30,000 jars. With more streamlined, business-savvy management, both Eswatini and ESK should not only be able to meet its already substantial commitments, but seek expansion opportunities. TechnoServe also has helped connect the companies to new funders who are assessing both businesses as well as achieve newer graphics and branding for promotional activities--designed pro bono by an international advertisement agency. There are additional economic benefits beyond supporting Manzini’s Youth Center for HIV/AIDS affected young people. TechnoServe and government agricultural agencies are now specifically encouraging both the 4,000 already-trained and new beekeepers among the youth and elderly by providing training on how to start, maintain, and build additional and/or mobile hives as well as seek new hive locations. The focus is to enable youth and the elderly—especially those affected or infected by HIV--to earn revenues for part-time, non-high-skilled activities. Meanwhile the bees do all the work! It is hoped that through all these collaborations, Swaziland can become one of the world’s premier honey sources and strong supplier of “good cause” jams and condiments.