Boy meets girl. They wed and soon have a baby. A typical story that can be found around the world, but when it is played out in the middle of a violent war it often takes a turn for the worse. Such is the case of Chris & Teri and their daughter Dori growing up in northern Sri Lanka.
Government soldiers one day came to their village and took Chris away to a military prison on suspicion of aiding the enemy. This left Teri and their little daughter alone in the middle of a war. It wouldn’t be long before they both joined several hundred thousand others in one of the war refugee camps.
When the war came to a close this family was reunited, but much had changed. Chris had suffered physical abuse while in prison and was left paralyzed from the waist down. To compound their problems they had no livelihood with the disappearance of their 16 cows, yet despite all this they were cared for by their neighbors and some special people at World Concern.
Recently World Concern began meeting with people from the area to develop a livelihood program that would help the community sustain itself in the future. It was agreed upon that creating a ‘milk chilling station’ co-op would be a great place to start. The co-op started by selecting 10 of the most vulnerable people in the community that could benefit from a gifted milking cow by World Concern. One of those selected by the community was Teri.
Today Chris & Teri and their 8 year old daughter have access to a balanced diet and a source of income that will help them build on a brighter future, and their community will shortly have a milk chilling station that will allow every dairy farmer an opportunity to sell their milk.
-Kurt
Names have been changed to protect the family.
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