Angelina Jolie Created A Beekeeping Programme With Guerlain To Help Women In Need
French beauty brand Guerlain has teamed with Angelina Jolie to create a program that helps not only women in need but also supports the beleaguered honey bees
Here's an idea: what if we could save the bees – an integral part of our entire ecosystem – as well as help underprivileged women become self-starting entrepreneurs at the same time?
Better yet, what if we could shore up food supplies in impoverished areas and also bring on board a renowned humanitarian for support?
Well, someone has done it.
Luxury French brand Guerlain is doing just that by joining forces with UNESCO to support the worldwide female beekeeping entrepreneurship program Women for Bees. And it is fronted by brand Guerlain ambassador and philanthropist Angelina Jolie.
Women for Bees will offer 30 days of training in Provence, France, where participants – from countries as far-flung as Russia, Ethiopia and Cambodia – will learn all aspects of beekeeping. The idea is to build 2,500 hives within 25 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves by 2025, to boost bee numbers, promote the sustainable profession of beekeeping and to empower disadvantaged women and their communities. Each year, 50 women will graduate and be supported in their own beekeeping operations.
The ecological benefit of bees is profound. They are a cog in the production of "no less than one third of the world's food supply", says Cécile Lochard, Guerlain's chief sustainability officer, "and their disappearance is a worldwide phenomenon which is endangering biodiversity." There are about 20,000 species of bees in the world (some 1,700 in Australia), but it is only one, the European honey bee, that is widely used by beekeepers and for commercial pollination of crops, both overseas and here. But, explains Lochard, in recent years their annual mortality rate has been as high as 30 per cent, which has a deadly knock-on effect to our ecosystem.
Jolie's role is one of global awareness. "Guerlain have a genuine commitment to the environment, sustainable development and the communities they work with," says the actor, who has been an ambassador of the brand since 2016. "That's what brought us together, and Women for Bees is a wonderful extension of that."
Perhaps what's most important is the positivity the program will generate, not only for the new bee-keepers but their families and communities. As Jolie says, "When women gain skills and knowledge, their instinct is to help raise up others."
Text: Bauer Syndication