Rebuilding livelihoods in rural Bosnia

The Milk Collection Cooperative in Bosansko Grahovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, is up and running with CWS-provided dairy equipment. Photo: Tatiana Dwyer/CWS

Story by Matthew Hackworth/CWS

Gradually, the families of Canton 10 in western Bosnia-Herzegovina are returning to the villages they fled as war erupted around them more than 15 years ago. Church World Service and its partners are helping returning families put roofs over their heads – building homes to replace those destroyed in war. The focus now is also on rebuilding livelihoods.

The goal? Self-sufficiency.

Achieving self-sufficiency begins with self-determination, which is what is being provided in the CWS Build a Village: Balkans program. This multi-year, local approach to recovery has taken root in the largely agrarian Canton 10, where generations of dairy farmers are starting to produce milk again.

Church World Service and its partners helped assemble a group of local leaders to guide how CWS-backed development funds would be spent. The panel decided the first project would pay for a veterinary service for dairy farmers, benefitting many families.

Since that first project, local leaders have expanded the program to establish another holistic program: the beginnings of a milk cooperative, so that the farmers around the village of Bosansko Grahovo can pool their resources to process milk, earn a living, and keep looking to the promise of a bright future.

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