Haikou man with disability Huang Guangxing lifts up fellow people with disabilities through beekeeping
On the morning of March 22, under bright sunshine, in Huang Guangxin's (center) bee garden, he was earnestly explaining beekeeping experience to people with disabilities from nearby villages.
Many years ago, due to an accident, his left hand was disabled; facing life's hardships, he once felt lost and helpless. However, he ultimately chose challenge and struggle. Years later, with his own intelligence and hard work, he not only became wealthy through beekeeping, but also established the Haikou Guangxin Entrepreneurship Planting and Breeding Cooperative, driving surrounding people with disabilities to develop beekeeping and other planting and breeding industries, so that people with disabilities can together use their diligent hands to brew a sweet life. He is Huang Guangxing, head of the Haikou Guangxin Entrepreneurship Planting and Breeding Cooperative in Daomei Village Committee, Jiuzhou Town, Qiongshan District, Haikou City.
Disabled in body but not in spirit
Huang Guangxing is 58 years old this year. In the winter of 1995, an accident left his left hand disabled. That year, he was 39, "with elderly parents above and young children below," the main pillar of the family. This accident left him "stunned all at once; at first I not only felt terrible, but also did not know which way to turn."
When he was confused, many stories of people disabled in body but not in spirit helped him rebuild his faith in life: "Although my left hand is disabled, the rest of me is still sound; I can still do many things."
Do what? After some consideration, Huang Guangxing planned to return to his old trade -- beekeeping. "Jiuzhou Town has fertile land, a moderate climate, and a good ecological environment, very suitable for beekeeping," he said. Since the 1980s, he had used his spare time to learn beekeeping techniques.
Now, facing life's hardships, he began to think about his physical condition and how to embark on a "road to prosperity" by developing this industry.
No sooner said than done. Huang Guangxing took out all his savings, bought several beehives and a batch of imported Italian bees, and officially began beekeeping. But before long, due to a lack of practical experience, the bees he kept either died or flew away. "At the time I was quite discouraged, but I did not want to give up, so I called the Institute of Apicultural Research of China to consult about the problems in the beekeeping process. I believed that as long as I found out where the problem was, I could raise the bees well," Huang Guangxing said. It was precisely this spirit of fearing no hardship that supported Huang Guangxing in holding firm to his faith and pressing ahead despite difficulties.
Lifting up fellow people with disabilities
To improve his beekeeping techniques, over those years Huang Guangxing often consulted and studied with the Institute of Apicultural Research of China, studied beekeeping books himself, and strengthened exchanges of experience with beekeepers from various places to improve his own skills. Hard work pays off. Through continuous practice and study, Huang Guangxing not only mastered the core techniques of bee keeping, but also discovered fine bee species that can maintain strong colonies and the technique of promptly replacing old queen bees, improving breeding efficiency. After years of careful breeding, Huang Guangxing's farm has already reached scale. At present, he keeps more than 100 hives of bees, with an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan.
A single flower does not make spring; a hundred flowers blooming together fill the garden with spring. After tasting the sweetness of beekeeping, Huang Guangxing wanted surrounding people with disabilities to taste the sweetness of beekeeping together. "I think beekeeping is very suitable for people with disabilities who cannot do heavy work, so I wanted to drive other rural people with disabilities like me to become wealthy through beekeeping," Huang Guangxing said.
Therefore, over these years, whenever it was time for bees to swarm, he would give the divided colonies free of charge to people with disabilities interested in beekeeping and teach them beekeeping techniques. If people with disabilities encountered problems in the beekeeping process, he would also personally visit to help solve them.
In 2010, Huang Guangxing also organized and established the Haikou Guangxin Entrepreneurship Planting and Breeding Cooperative. Combining the characteristics of Jiuzhou Town and his own planting and breeding techniques, he provided members with planting and breeding technical services and drove more than a dozen surrounding people with disabilities to engage in beekeeping and the planting and breeding of areca nut, longan, lychee, and other crops, and registered the trademark "Lülei," uniformly selling the agricultural products produced by the cooperative to the outside and uniformly building the brand. Driven by him, many surrounding people with disabilities took up a series of planting and breeding undertakings through beekeeping, planting longan, planting areca nut, raising pigs, and more. Every household's life got better year after year, winning high praise from local people.
Committed to helping more people with disabilities find employment
On the morning of March 22, under bright sunshine, in Huang Guangxin's bee garden, he was earnestly explaining beekeeping experience to people with disabilities from nearby villages. Today's Huang Guangxin is already the nearby "famous Bee King." For those people with disabilities who come to ask for advice or request bee species, he not only warmly receives them and teaches techniques, but also gives them his own bee species free of charge.
Huang Guangxin said that, in fact, over the years, the success of his business has also been inseparable from the help of many caring people, "so I also hope to do my best to help others, especially some people with disabilities who need more care."
What made him happy was that, in order to help the Haikou Guangxin Entrepreneurship Planting and Breeding Cooperative develop better and radiate and drive more people with disabilities into employment, in February 2016, the Hainan ProvincialDisabled Persons' Federation supported the Haikou Guangxin Entrepreneurship Planting and Breeding Cooperative with 100,000 yuan in startup funds.
"We will use this money to support members in expanding production scale. The next step is to open a honey processing factory. Once completed, it will provide employment for more than 30 people with disabilities," Huang Guangxing said. He will make good use of this money, further expand and strengthen the cooperative, do his utmost to help more people with disabilities increase their incomes and become wealthy, and better repay society.