2007.11.24: November 24, 2007: Headlines: COS - Fiji: Beekeeping: Dallas News: Fiji RPCV John Caldeira helps other countries develop beekeeping operations

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Fiji: Peace Corps Fiji : Peace Corps Fiji: Newest Stories: 2007.11.24: November 24, 2007: Headlines: COS - Fiji: Beekeeping: Dallas News: Fiji RPCV John Caldeira helps other countries develop beekeeping operations

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Fiji RPCV John Caldeira helps other countries develop beekeeping operations

Fiji RPCV John Caldeira helps other countries develop beekeeping operations

He has shared his expertise in Ukraine, South Africa, Moldova and Romania through the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, or CNFA. The projects – part of the John Ogonowski Farmer to Farmer program – are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. For his efforts, Mr. Caldeira was recently awarded the President's Volunteer Service Award from the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. Mr. Caldeira, 52, has spent 39 days over the past three years in Ukraine, where he has an interpreter to help teach his craft. He not only teaches them how to make honey, but also to deal with distributors and stores and create a supply chain. He'll leave soon on another trip to that country.

Fiji RPCV John Caldeira helps other countries develop beekeeping operations

Carrollton man teaching others to make honey

08:38 AM CST on Saturday, November 24, 2007

By LYNDA STRINGER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Caption: John Caldeira, 52, a beekeeper for 27 years, teaches people in other countries how to make honey, deal with distributors and stores and create a supply chain. The local co-ops and farmers, he said, in most instances are grateful for the help. Photo: Ricky Moon

John Caldeira has been a beekeeper for 27 years. But he doesn't keep his passion for harvesting their prized honey to himself. He helps other countries develop beekeeping operations.


He started in the mid-1980s when he sold his house and car, took a leave of absence from his job in Houston and packed up for Fiji, where he served in the Peace Corps for two years. He provided technical assistance to a village cooperative and local farmers interested in beekeeping.

The Carrollton resident is now semi-retired from his career in business and financial planning in the software industry, allowing him more time to devote to his volunteer efforts overseas.

He has shared his expertise in Ukraine, South Africa, Moldova and Romania through the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, or CNFA. The projects – part of the John Ogonowski Farmer to Farmer program – are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

For his efforts, Mr. Caldeira was recently awarded the President's Volunteer Service Award from the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Mr. Caldeira, 52, has spent 39 days over the past three years in Ukraine, where he has an interpreter to help teach his craft. He not only teaches them how to make honey, but also to deal with distributors and stores and create a supply chain. He'll leave soon on another trip to that country.

The local co-ops and farmers, he said, in most instances are grateful for the help.

"There are a lot of things that we take for granted here," he said. "By helping them be successful, it helps them align their economies with the U.S. and Western Europe and to not slip back into the old Soviet style of government."

Eric Wallace, the program officer for CNFA, said Mr. Caldeira's "heart is in the right place."

"He has a genuine orientation toward giving and being generous toward the people he works with in the Ukraine," Mr. Wallace said. "We pay all the expenses, but it is quite costly in time and effort, and he gives of that very freely."

Mr. Caldeira sees the work as a way for the U.S. to forge and strengthen bonds with foreign countries.

"The U.S. [government] is trying to do good for people, and they're doing it in a positive way. Funding nonmilitary aid projects is a very inexpensive way to keep the world a peaceful place," he said.

Volunteers in the Farmer to Farmer program also help to clear up misconceptions around the world about the U.S., Mr. Wallace said.

"It helps our nation through people-to-people contact when we are known and understood," he said.

Mr. Caldeira said the work is also personally gratifying for him.

"It is very satisfying to be teaching," he said. "Also, for me it's being able to see another culture and being able to understand that culture and become very immersed in it like a tourist never would."

Lynda Stringer is a North Richland Hills freelance writer.




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Headlines: November, 2007; Peace Corps Fiji; Directory of Fiji RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Fiji RPCVs; Beekeeping





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Story Source: Dallas News

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