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A Cow is a Treasure	A Familiar Fear	Estella Can Fix Anything
Circle of Life in Appalachia	North Korean Hospitality

A Cow is a Treasure

"Give me a cow," said old Halil. "That's all I need. If we had cows, we could take care of ourselves again."

So a Global Impact member agency encouraged a group of 24 displaced families living in Slatina, outside of Sarajevo, to put together a plan.

 

With funding from the Global Impact member, four veteran farmers of the group went to the area livestock market. They returned with 10 hearty cows, nine of which were pregnant.

Families with the greatest need received the cows, and the others receive a share of the milk and cheese. In addition, the group made an "in-kind" payback by providing milk and cheese to a local group for distribution to Sarajevo's neediest.

 

Amir, chair of the Cow Committee who saw his 11-year-old son killed by a grenade put it this way: "Now I feel like a human being again," he says seriously and with his head held high, "because now I can help others who are even worse off than we are."

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A Familiar Fear

When Mrs. Yong Eng stepped on a land mine, she lost one leg and injured the other. "Sometimes, forgetful of my maimed state, I spring to catch my little child," she says, "and then I fall to the ground, the bones of my leg aching."

Her story is all too familiar in Cambodia. One out of every 236 Cambodians has stepped on a landmine. In the wake of war, millions of mines still lie buried, waiting to ambush villagers working in fields, gathering firewood, or herding livestock. Fear of being killed or maimed by the mines keeps many farmers from planting food for their families and many children from playing near their homes.

An Global Impact member program works to clear mines in a rural area north of Phnom Penh. The mine clearance benefits 15,000 displaced people by allowing them to resume farming their land.

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Estella Can Fix Anything

Estella is known locally as someone who can fix anything. She repairs items found in the nearby city dump and resells them for a steady income, but she lacks collateral.

Considered a "high risk" borrower by local banks, she has difficulty obtaining credit for loans. Yet with the help of a Global Impact member agency and a local church organization, Estella's business prospects are good. The reason: she is not alone.

Estella and her friends, Olga Gomez, Raquel Parrales and Candida Davila, can secure small loans when they pledge to guarantee one another's businesses. The four women help each other with labor and credit. If one falls behind in payments or has trouble, the others are responsible to help her. As partners, they refer clients and regularly check up on each other.

One time, Candida took out a loan to expand her business, but then fell ill and had to use some of the money for medical bills. While she recovered, her partners and her daughter stood beside her. The Global Impact member charity stood beside them as well.

 

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Circle of Life in Appalachia

The idea of day care is still pretty new in Appalachia. There are big extended families and family ties mean everything. But divorce is becoming more common, and people have to work longer hours to make ends meet. Even when families are intact, there's need here-kids are hungry and cold.

An Global Impact member agency runs a daycare center in Appalachia and the most they charge is $11 a day-many families can't even afford that. The daycare's primary job is to make sure that the kids are warm and fed. But the program forms a foundation in learning and self-esteem that lasts a lifetime.

Hallie's thin, exhausted-looking mother brought her to daycare one winter day; Hallie's hair was unclean and matted. She didn't say a word and looked about three years old. Hallie's mother and father were divorced, she had very little money, and she didn't have the strength to raise a small child alone.

Hallie was bathed and bundled in some warm clothes that first day, and was bathed and clothed whenever necessary. She ate warm, nutritious food. Once she was cleaned up, warm and fed, she came to life. From a timid little mouse who kept to her self and didn't seem to know simple, three-year-old things, she blossomed into a sweet girl who's learning her ABCs and numbers.

The philosophy behind the program believes that all life is a circle: self, family, community, country, world, and universe. Every one of us is important because we are part of a bigger whole. And we are all responsible for what happens in our world. Teach this to a child who has nothing and you help create a mature, contributing adult.

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North Korean Hospitality

North Koreans have harvested almost 4 million tons of food-not nearly enough to adequately feed a nation. They plant crops everywhere-from flood-recovered fields to rooftops to rocky hillsides. Children spend 12-hour days following harvesters in search of fallen grain. Despite damaging cuts in livestock feeding and heroic personal sacrifices, the food stored in North Korea's granaries will only last for seven months.

As part of a food-monitoring consortium, a Global Impact member agency spent three months in North Korea. Team members tell stories of quiet deprivation, sickness, and desperation: "Standing on a bridge, overlooking a muddy little stream was a skinny boy of about 7 years inching along, catching minnows with his hands and holding his prize of three tiny fish skewered on a stick held firmly between his teeth. That evening, when we visited a home in the nearby village, which we knew to be doing pretty badly, we were amazed to find at least 15 different dishes laid out for us, each holding a tiny portion of food. Everyone in the village had chipped in what they had, including those three tiny minnows lying on a plate."

Where food aid reached, daily intake rose from an average 3.5 ounces to between 8.75-14 ounces per person-still well under the recommended daily minimum of 15 ounces per person, but enough to make a significant difference in people's resistance to prolonged deprivation. Visitors to North Korea stress that international aid has been a deciding factor in preventing a disastrous, full-blown famine.

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