Fathima lives in Parasangaswewa village in Northern Sri Lanka with her husband and two children, a son and a daughter. Her husband and daughter are both deaf, however they are all doing their best for each other. Both Fathima's son and daughter attend school, but as they get older it is becoming more expensive for the family. Fathima's husband works a casual labour job at a concrete shop nearby their house and earns a reasonable income but it was not enough to sustain the family. Â
Fathima decided to change this by rearing cattle on a lease basis. She started by leasing the village cow and dedicated her time to looking after it and raising it to be a dairy cow. She started to earn an income from selling its milk! She then decided to take out a loan with the help of Hope for Children to buy a dairy cow for her family to continue to increase their household income. Â
She said, "I now earn 15000LKR (£70) a month from my cow and am very happy about my life now. I am proud of owning my own cow and hope to buy more cows in the future as a result of the income that this cow has brought me."Â