By Maryam Henein, Buzzworthy Blogs HoneyColony has been nominated for a Kiva Zip loan of $5,000, and we’d like your support. HoneyColony is a magazine and marketplace geared toward people who are starting their health journey. HoneyColony is dedicated to empowering folks about bees, the food supply, and healthy living. As a health-oriented start up, HoneyColony draws revenue from our online store and from supporters like you who want to stay informed about the foods we eat and the food policy and legislation that affects us, influencing mind, body, and spirit. To keep our produce at the grocery store as nutritious as possible, we have to stay informed and hold our policymakers accountable. Kiva Zip is a pilot program, launched by Kiva, that enables people to make direct loans to entrepreneurs in Kenya and the United States. However, our loan is currently in the private fundraising period. We need a minimum of $5 from several people to make the campaign public on the Kiva Zip website. If not, our loan will expire. Please lend your support!  Five dollars can make a huge difference. Entrepreneurial Flair I grew up in Montreal, Canada. I am Egyptian by descent. I was a chubby nerd who loved playing with Barbies along with worms and ladybugs. I didn’t grow up eating good food. Sure, my mother cooked food from scratch, but this was the late 70s and early 80s. I grew up with Oreo cookies, Lucky Charms, and McDonald’s. I battled with my weight and as a young adult tried numerous ‘fad’ diets. At 29, I was hit by a Ford Explorer and broke seven bones. My health fell apart, and it was alternative medicine and my resourcefulness that saved me. Read The Heart Behind The Hive for more information. I restored my hormones and fatigued adrenals. I went on a candida diet and discovered the power of probiotics. I went to a naturopath. I studied alternative medicine voraciously, using myself as a guinea pig. I discovered raw food and superfoods. Today, I’ve been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and I have markers for the autoimmune disease called lupus. Western medicine wanted to put me on anti-depressants and steroids. I refused. I manage to keep my symptoms in remission with proper food, supplements, sleep, superfoods, exercise, and positive thoughts. I believe it is important to eat for your body and to only ingest clean organic real food. I want HoneyColony to save people precious time. It took me years to realize there’s a lot of hype out there and that not one shoe fits all. After my accident, I wanted to make my life count. I worked on meaningful programs for Robert GreenWald and Morgan Spurlock. And then in 2007, my colleague George Langworthy and I decided to make our own documentary about the disappearance of the bees. It has become the award-winning film Vanishing of the Bees, narrated by Ellen Page. Making a film out of nothing was a huge sacrifice and leap of faith. But it also shows my determination and dedication to see something through to completion. The bees opened my eyes to our unsustainable agricultural landscape. What is the purpose of this loan? We plan to split the site into two. HoneyColony will focus on content and our sister site, Simply Tranformative, will be made up of a collective of the highest quality vendors (think hive) with products that support our overall well being. With our small staff and your steady support, we can continue our mission. This loan is endorsed by Anthony Baron Kirk of Aseda, the producer of raw wild organic honey from Ghana, Africa. Thank you for your support!  If you rather give a tax-deductible donation instead of a loan. You can do that too. This 75-second animation explains HoneyColony’s concept: .