Gift Cows Give Hope to Kosovo War Widows

Aid group helps heal the wounds of war in Europe's fledgling country
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 12, 2008 8:28 PM CDT
Gift Cows Give Hope to Kosovo War Widows
An ethnic Albanian woman looks during the visit of UN ambassadors in the western Kosovar village of Mala Krusa, Saturday, April 28, 2007. Serb troops killed 116 men in the village in 1999.   (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A Dutch organization is helping steer Kosovo's war widows toward a brighter future, Radio Free Netherlands reports. Many were left to fend for themselves after losing loved ones in the war against Serbia; now the Dutch group The Bridge is giving them cows to put food on the table and earn money by selling milk. Each is obliged to give their cow's first-born calf to another woman.

"After the war, the economy went into free fall," said the head of a Kosovar women's organization. "Seven years on, you can see that the widows are beginning to recover, even though they have lost many loved ones. This is a wonderful new start for all of these women." (More cows stories.)

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