|
Bumi Ayu village is located
in Lampung, the southernmost province on the island of Sumatra.
Most of the people here actually came from the neighboring island
of Java. Because the population in Java is too high, the
government relocated them to Lampung. Most of the people are
farmers living in rural areas, working as laborers in nearby
factories, tenant-farming on someone else's land or maintaining
their own small space to plant crops.
 Mr.
Seri lives in Bumi Ayu with his family. He works as a laborer in a
factory, loading agricultural products onto trucks to be driven to
market. He has six children, but lives only with his wife and
youngest son. The rest of his children have married and moved to
other towns.
Before Heifer arrived in his
village, Mr. Seri was a litter picker, gathering trash and selling
it to a factory for recycling. After being hit twice by
motorcycles and realizing just how dangerous his job was, he
decided to retire from litter picking. In 2000, he joined the
Heifer-supported project in his village and received one cow from
Yabima, the local NGO project-holder.
Before receiving his cow,
Mr. Seri worried terribly about youngest son, because the son had
no job and had no productive activity to fill his time. But since
the arrival of the cow, Mr. Seri's son now helps his father care
for the animal. After coming home from school, his son brings the
cow to
the grazing area. While the cow grazes, his son has time to play
with his friends.
It is Mr. Seri's dream that
through joining Heifer's local project, he will be able to help
his young son continue his studies until he reaches the university
level. "I don't want my son to be like me; I don't want him
to be a litter picker," he says. Hopefully, Heifer Indonesia
and Yabima can make his dream come true.
This story
is from the Raising Family Income
with Ongole and Bali Cattle
Project
Story by Febrianti, Heifer
Indonesia
back to top
|
