Aida Spahic Update

We visited Aida Spahic on the 20 November 2012 at her home in the small rural community of Spahici some kilometres from the city of Zenica in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her home is high on the mountainside. It was cold and she was at home with her two sons who are aged 8 and 3. She received a loan of a little over £700 in April this year which she actually used to buy feed in bulk for her sheep and also finance some reconstruction work in her bathroom. This is her third loan from the microfinance organisation Women for Women International. Aida and her husband have various income earning activities. Aida spent the four summer months this year in her father’s village a couple of kilometres away milking other farmers’ sheep. She was paid a wage of 200 euros per month for this work. Her husband was unemployed but found employment working as a shepherd looking after sheep in neighbouring Croatia - he manages to return home every two months or so. Aida sold six sheep that she had fattened in May for 100 euros each - it is customary for people in Bosnia to buy and slaughter sheep at the beginning of May and demand was high. She still has two sheep and two cows though. Each of the Simmental variety of cow she has produces up to 20 litres of milk each day which she sells to a local dairy for between 20 and 40 euro cents. She can earn up to 15 euros from selling milk on a good day. The Simmental cows are more productive than local varieties of cow but also more expensive to buy and require more food and overall care. Aida also farms around 7000 square metres of their own land where she grows potatoes, maize, and various vegetables such as carrots and onions. She sells the surplus in the local market. Aida received training from the microfinance organisation in collecting wild herbs, but actually making a living from collecting and selling herbs requires time and she is restricted somewhat because she has to care for her sons. Her hope is that her sons stay in education as long as possible in order to have good qualifications and find professional employment - she herself left school at 14 because she had to help out in her family farm. Aida is a very hardworking woman and it is certainly impressive how she almost single handedly farms and cares for her family. Update submitted by Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Ajsa Saric and Melnisa Begovic.