Revitalized

March 8 is International Woman’s Day.  If the holiday is celebrated in the United States, I have managed to be unaware of it.  But on March 8, 1996, the women of Bosnia have given me a reason to celebrate which I will never forget.

Consider Mensi and her friends in Fojnica.  Successful professionals before the war, during the past four years these Bosnian Muslims and Croat Catholics have endured the deaths of loved ones (most have been widowed), confinement in concentration camps, personal injuries from sniper’s bullets, and geographical displacement.  Unable to return to their previous careers because of a weak economy, yet determined to provide for their children and for others whom the war has left orphaned, sick, or handicapped, these eight women used a World Vision grant to start a sewing business.  Their hard work has paid off.  In February they signed a contract to supply the Bosnian ministry of defense with 10,000 bed sheets.  Even during our visit the sewing machines were buzzing. 

Twelve women in Kresevo share a similar history of horrors—and a similar story of success.  During the first weeks of 1996 they lined a dark garage with shelves, filled square wooden crates with the proper mixture of soil and moss, and in round-the-clock shifts monitored the heat and moisture levels in the building to exacting standards.  Crowded in a back corner of their converted garage, they proudly displayed the results of their creative business endeavor: large, white, delicious mushrooms.  Having just been awarded a contract to provide all the mushrooms to an entire grocery store chain, the women are confident they will be able to provide well for their children.  While smiling for photographs they offered us a celebration snack of cake and Cokes.

To see hope and joy where despair and grief have so recently dominated was to see the value of offering people a means of self-sufficiency.  These micro-businesses and others started with seed capital and business training from World Vision are powerful tools for rebuilding a broken society and broken lives.  As Mensi said, “I feel revitalized.  The project occupies my mind and helps me forget the bad things that happened to me.  It allows me to support my family and be successful.”

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