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“We can face the future now”
A young girl with her living gift of a Bóthar goat. |
During the Kosovo conflict in 1999, more than 900,000 people were forced to flee their homeland, seeking refuge in Albania and other neighbouring countries.
Those who didn’t flee, lost their lives - between 20,000 and 25,000 people were killed, mostly men and young boys. Thousands of homes were burned or bombed, and many farms were destroyed. As a result, over 70 percent of the animals in Kosovo were killed, stolen or slaughtered by the Serbs and their collaborators.
In Servete Ramadani’s tiny village of Krusha E Madhe, her husband and brother were among the 206 villagers who were killed. She is still searching for their bodies. At the end of the conflict, hundreds of thousands of Kosovars tried to return to their homes and pick up the pieces of their lives.
"When we returned to our village," said Ilmije Hiseni, who lives above Krusha E Madhe in a small Roma community, "this is when we understood what poor means. We heard someone was giving away biscuits. We took what we could and that is how we survived for weeks… but it was impossible."
Bóthar, with project partners Heifer International, initiated the first Kosovo project immediately after the war, focusing on extensive agricultural and animal husbandry training, but it wasn’t easy at first.
"Everything had been destroyed," said Heifer Kosovo Director Nuridin Mestani. "There were victims everywhere."
Servete Ramadani, is now raising her children with her mother-in-law’s help in her village of Krusha E Madhe.
It’s not the day they returned home that Servete Ramadani remembers – it’s the day she and her neighbours received 42 goats from Bóthar.
"When we first saw them, it was truly one of the happiest days of our lives. The children were screaming with happiness! Before, we only ate bread and tea. Now we have milk from the goats, and the health of our children has changed dramatically. We have seen many positive changes. These goats have changed our lives and made things a lot better."
"It was truly one of the happiest days of our lives," remembers Ilmije’s neighbour, Ganimete Mamutaj, who lost her husband and a son in the conflict. "Our village is known in all of Kosovo as the most affected [by the conflict]," she said. "But now, these Bóthar goats have become our new life, and we are forever grateful to those who cared."
Servete’s hopefulness echoes Ganimete’s. "Today, because of Bóthar’s help, we have an opportunity to face the future.".
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