CORRESPONDENT April 2017
Famine in South Sudan pg 4
New Ethical Fashion Guide pgs 6-7
Bovine Intervention: Arutsothy proudly stands by one of her cows which is helping grow her income.
‘Now I feel we are valuable people’ Bouncing along in a ute through the narrow rural roads of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, the scenery is beautiful. Lush greens, palm trees and thriving rice paddies flash past me.
desperate. Before we left, we had 40 cows, but we returned to nothing. We rebuilt our home, but my income was low. I have to do the hard labour because my husband is sick. He spends around 10 days a month in hospital, and we were struggling to pay his medical expenses.
By Ella Rudin
Fortunately, [Tearfund’s partner] gave me a cow and training on how to improve my milk production. Now with the extra income from the milk, I hire farm hands to do the hard labour and can pay for my husband’s medical expenses.
The homes we drive past are small, approximately five by six metres. Most are made from concrete and don’t seem to have electricity. Yet, I don’t feel the familiar pang of empathic sorrow. Instead, I have an epiphany – it’s not a lack of possessions that qualifies people as ‘living in poverty’, it’s the lack of opportunities to make an income. When you consider Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, caste system and the religious and ethnic divides, the picture is much more complex. The number or grandeur of the possessions you own doesn’t necessarily determine your level of poverty.
Potential of Sponsorship pgs 11-12
PICTURES Ella Rudin
and kindness. Like many grandmothers I know, she speaks with wisdom and openness. I’ve been told she’s a ‘model farmer’ – having worked hard to improve her milk production. She tells me about the war.
“When we arrived home from the displacement camp, I thought, ‘why did we bother?’ I was desperate. Before we left we had 40 cows, but we returned to nothing.”
Rather, a lack of opportunities to earn a stable income is what keeps people shackled to poverty. Not knowing where your next meal will come from, or not being able to guarantee your children an education is what poverty looks like. It is this lack of opportunity that Tearfund is addressing by helping to rebuild the dairy industry guided by the expertise and innovation from New Zealand.
“We’ve lived here for 20 years, but in 2009, we had to flee because there were bombs going off and army tanks firing here. Before we left, we didn’t have any water to drink. We would dig for water, but by the time we found it, we had to run for cover, and we didn’t get to drink it. In the end, we fled with only our clothes on our backs.”
When we arrived at the home of a woman called Arutsothy, I was greeted with warmth
“When we arrived home from the displacement camp, I thought, ‘why did we bother?’ I was
I ask what happened when she returned home.
With my extra income, I’m also able to help children in the neighbourhood, some who don’t have a father or are orphans. I’ve helped by buying them bicycles, exercise books and bags so they can go to school. I have a principle that I will always try to help. Even if I only have five rupees, I will give two, because when we die, we can’t take anything with us anyway. I want to thank [Tearfund’s partner] for their support. They have helped me increase my income and that has really improved our lives. Now I feel we are valuable people.” It’s incredible to know that ‘empowerment’ really works. For Arutsothy and 35,000 more people that Tearfund is working with through Empower, the opportunity to earn an income brings pride and dignity.
You can give to Tearfund’s Empower work at tearfund.org.nz
Ethical Fashion Guide pg 6-7