ITALY: First beekeeping students graduate
Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco graduates first class from beekeeping program
ITALY
(MissionNewswire) The ApiCultura project in Lombriasco, Italy, was established in October 2020 from a collaboration between Net4Grow, a network of Salesian agricultural schools, and the Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco. The aim of the project was to bring beekeeping back to the Salesian Agricultural School while safeguarding the species and educating on the importance of care for the environment.
After 10 months, the first training course finished and the first yield of honey was extracted. Students had the opportunity to complete their training by actively participating in a course for beekeeping operators, which was organized and implemented by the Agripiemonte Miele Producers Association in Turin. Students were able to put their classroom learning into practice when they were involved in the first honey extraction.
“It’s our duty to thank Hobby Farm in Biella and Riccardo Rubato who made 10 hives and a honey extraction laboratory available to us. This allowed students to put practical skills learned in the classroom into practice,” said Daniel Orminus, project manager of the Youth in Agriculture project, which is part of the Salesian Agricultural School beekeeping course.
Orminus added, “We also need to thank former student Marco Trinchero, who donated the bees, and Alessandro Appendino with Apicoltura Aperin who provided the technical step-by-step assistance for the care of bees.”
The project is now exploring the collection of data with the use of the ground air sensors supplied by X-Farm. The environmental data outside and inside the hives will be evaluated and compared with other biodiversity data. This data will help to drive different pollination and production phases. The information from this project will also be shared with Net4Grow so that other Salesian agricultural schools can learn from the experience and create training programs locally based on best practices.
In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.
Italy has close to 1.2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.
According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.
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Sources:
ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)
Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco
Salesian Missions – Italy
UNICEF – Italy Poverty
