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Heifer Albania Success Stories
Escape from the poverty – a cow counts a lot
Walking down a dusty trail beneath a blue sky, we approach the small village of Mertish in Lushnja region. As you get closer, you begin to see the open fields and small houses with gardens planted with vegetables, flowers and other crops. And, among the houses, new stables and Heifer cows have brought a change in this environment.
Youth have fled the country immigrating to neighboring states and the population of the village is dominated by the elderly.
We visited the family of Llazar Dushi. As we were approaching the small house, two old people came toward us. They live alone as their daughters are married and their son emigrated to Italy years ago. They were happy knowing that there are people in the world that think for the poor. The old woman, about 65 years old, is happy having a cow. She looks after the cow while her husband works in the garden.
Asked how cow has changed their life the woman replies:
“At the beginning when our children decided to leave the village, we lived poorly and the only source of income was our children’s help. Sometimes we couldn’t afford buying salt and soap. I was told that we could join Heifer Albania project and we made an application for a heifer. After planting pasture and constructing a cow shed, we were proper to receive a heifer from Heifer. “This cow brought hope and prosperity to our family. Now we get plenty of milk, cheese and butter every day and we can sell some in the town. We sometimes share milk with our relatives”.
“We thank people from Heifer for their generosity. They are the only one to give us the opportunity to get ourselves out of poverty. Thank you Heifer for changing our lives! We will look after the cow and we will always pray for you who are so kind to assist the people in need”.
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