A new life
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© UNICEF Kosovo / 2008 |
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A young girl and a woman working in a field in Kosovo. |
Written by Zyle Hasani, Project Monitor of Women’s Literacy Programme, Acareva village, Drenas/Drenica region
Besa was just a little baby when her mother died. She grew up without her care. A few years after, Besa lost her father too. Besa was left without parents and caring for her befell on her elder brother.
Those days life was difficult. And it became tougher as the two were left only with each other to rely on. They struggled for existence. Besa’s brother had to walk for miles to reach the nearest town where he could hope to find a job. And he did not choose from what was on offer. Taking up any job that he could find, he provided for himself and Besa.
After a while he managed to put some money aside, got married and started his own family. He had two gorgeous boys (Besnik and Agim). Besa was there to care for them, just as her brother was there to give her shelter and care for her.
But things got worse when war broke out. Besa’s brother and his wife were killed in the conflict. Their kids survived. Their parent’s names are still on the missing persons list. They were never found. Besa was on her own again. What’s more she had two children to look after.
Struggling to make ends meet, Besa never had a chance to go to school. She was illiterate.
When the literacy course was initiated and local Women’s NGOs supported by UNICEF were doing an assessment to identify the girls and women that were illiterate and were interested in taking up the opportunity, Besa was one of the potential candidates. At the beginning it was very hard for her as she was very shy and embarrassed by the whole situation.
But the literacy course teacher was very persistent: besides learning reading and writing she could also attend a sewing course that could help her in ensuring an income. She liked the idea but the problem was that there was nobody to look after her brother’s children. Besa was torn between the opportunity given to her and her obligations: ‘Who would take care of the nephews, who would prepare food for them, feed them, do the housework...?
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© UNICEF Kosovo / 2008 |
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A young girl looking after the cows in Kosovo in the early morning, before going to school. |
Besa’s aunt offered to take care of the children while she attended the classes; she thought perhaps the course would help her forget a little bit of what she had been through if she were to have contact with people outside her family.
Finally Besa made a decision. At the beginning, the lessons seemed to her to be an additional concern. Each day seemed harder to her than the previous one. During the lessons she often caught herself thinking of the children at home, or whether the cow was taken out to the grazing field.
The teacher treated her in a special way. Very often she came near her, gave explanations regarding different things and tried to keep her attention in the classroom. After a certain period, permission was given to her to bring her smallest nephew (a four-year old boy) with her. The Local Women’s NGO coordinator took care of him while Besa was attending the courses.
Finally she started to get used to these daily activities. She woke up early in the morning, milked the cow, prepared the food and fed the children, cleaned the house, washed and ironed the clothes and then she was ready to leave for the course. She had begun to love the teacher, friends and the surrounding. She started to enjoy the reading of the letters for the first time in her life, she started to feel more confident and even made decisions about her own personal life; ‘I even believe that my dream may come true: I’ll become a famous dressmaker in my village’ Besa says.
This was the beginning of a new life for Besa. Now she is frightened to recall the past. When the new environment and her friends became part of her life she said to them ‘It is very good when the sadness is shared with others, I want to express my gratitude to all of you for the support you have given to me, you have changed my life, I love you all’.
Note: For privacy reasons, names in this story have been changed.
