Every now and then I accept Guest Blogs on to my Beekeeping Blog and this month I have accepted a Guest Blogger by the name of Iain Judge and his vision of setting up a Socially Responsible company dealing with Beeswax Candles.
I hope you like his journey as I will be updating it all on here as well.
“Lucer-WHAT?”
Ok so lets get this straight, why choose a name that no one understands and only people in Romania can pronounce? Lucenarium is a Roman word meaning a festival of light and in Roman times most lightswere either oil lamps or beeswax candles. But the real reason is that I wanted something that I thought sounded classy to promote my beeswax candles and in short I quite like it! So how on earth do you pronounce it?
“Loo-churn-are-ee-um” or Lucenarium, there is another spelling of the word but I won’t confuse matters by telling you it.
What’s the big idea?
I’m trying to set up a company that will provide activities with a purpose for people with learning disabilities. My background has been in managing a day center for people with profound learning disabilities for the last 5 years. And since I am a beekeeper and i enjoy making things, I thought what better than making beautiful beeswax candles to sell to the general public.There is such a need in our society to provide meaningful occupation for people, There are some very good day centers and ‘colleges’ for people with special needs, but there are also a lot of mediocre ones too.
As a society, our care of people with learning disabilities has changed greatly over the past 30 years, firstly with the closure of the big hospital institutions that kept people who were a little bit different out of site of the public “for their own good!” through to the beginning of the closure of the smaller ‘care homes’ many of which had, unfortunately, become institutions on a smaller scale.
So now in 2012 people with special needs are beginning to get independence, to live in accommodation of their own choosing, near family and friends if they wish. But they are still lacking some major opportunities in life…….
Something to do during the day that gives purpose and meaning to their lives. Now I’m not for one minute saying that work is the be all and end all of our being, but it is a pretty big thing in most adults’ lives.
Pyschologists often talk about the 3 big things in people’s lives, Home (well that one is on the way to being sorted) Relationship (there are now dating agencies for people with learning disabilities) And Work …
Lucenarium Beeswax Candles
I know that Lucenarium Beeswax Candles will not solve the issue of work and occupation for people with learning disabilities, but what I would like to achieve is to show businesses the real value that, I believe, can be added to a company by putting people who are marginalised in the workforce at the center of their operations.
I would like to show case exactly what people with disabilities can achieve if they are given the right opportunity and facilities. And to demonstrate to the public that people with learning disabilities are not just people who are always on the receiving end of benefits, but rather they ‘value add’ to our society and can even have a positive contribution to make towards the economy.
Hopefully over the next 12 months, in monthly installments, I am going to chart the progress of Lucenarium Beeswax Candles in this blog, which James has very kindly invited me to write. I hope it will be an exciting and fruitful journey, I’m sure that there will be many trials and tribulations along the way. I also hope to share with you some of the ‘secrets’ of beeswax candles and for those of you with your own bees and beeswax, how to refine your beeswax at home.
James’ note: Should you want to know a little bit more about Iain and his exploits with Lucenarium Beeswax Candles you can find information on the Guest Beekeeping Blog page