“It caused a lot of pain in my wounds. I managed to finish 7th grade before it became too much to bear. I asked to be demobbed and sent back to Shire.”

Amaresh returned home with a year’s supply of food and some rehabilitation money. “A while after I returned home I decided to sell onions and tomatoes in the market”, she says, “but I had to stop that business after seven months as I was not making a profit. After that I worked for nine months on construction sites as a day labourer. My job was to add water to cement.” “Then, three years ago, I came to the conclusion that there was only one thing that I really understood”, Amaresh continues, “and that was how to look after cows. So I bought a cow and started to sell the milk. She produces two liters of milk a day. I sell it to my neighbors, along with butter that I make from the milk.”


A picture of Amaresh when she is miliking

Amaresh makes about 150 birr a month (around US$15) from her business. It costs 500 birr a year to keep the livestock in fee and salt, and sometimes her animals die for want of veterinary care, but Amaresh is optimistic about her enterprise.

“This business is good enough for me to lead a decent life”, she says, “Although if I had more capital I would buy ‘foreign’ cows, as they produce more milk. When my new house is finished I would like to diversify and open a small shop in front of it.”

Amaresh is happy with her life. “I’m OK”, she says. “I’m better off than those comrades who died on the battlefield far away. I’m alive, and living is good.”