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The Women of Krusha e Madhe (Grate e Krushës së Madhe; Жене у Великој Круши) are known as the Widowed Women of Kosovo because of the tragic massacre that occurred in their village. Throughout the dates 25, 26 and 27 of March in 1999 during the Kosovo War, most, if not all, of the men were gathered up and shot to death. The women and children fled Krushe e Madhe and headed for the Albanian border. Once the war was over and they returned, their entire village was flat because their houses, mosques, schools, etc had been burned to the ground.

These women who were now the heads of households decided to change their fate and become the income generators of the village. Not only did they bring in money for their families, but also drastically developed Krusha and its economy. When they returned, they lived in extreme poverty and horrible living conditions but through opening small businesses and continuously expanding their market share, they managed to get out of it. Although this village still needs growth and improvement, Krusha has never had such high demands from consumers. Maximum dexterity has been given by the women towards trying to help families have a better life and seeing their village’s economy thrive.

Location and Population
Krusha e Madhe is located in the municipality of Rahovec, Kosovo. It is considered to be the biggest village in Kosovo. The population of Krusha e Madhe is estimated to be arond 7,000 citizens.

Economy
The agricultural areas of Krusha e Madhe are rich with an overall of 630 hectares of fertile land. The fertile lands of Krusha e Madhe impact the economy. More than 16 hectares of the land are used for planting different vegetables, including 6 hectares of peppers, 2 hectares of potatoes, 2 hectares of onions and cucumbers, and other vegetables. An agricultural cooperative is currently open, which is mostly renowned for processed vegetables. Through it, farmers aim to increase the market share of vegetables in Kosovo and in neighboring countries. In general, Kosovo is rich with fertile land in which different vegetables and fruits are cultivated. Thus, Kosovo tends to be a country with a variety of traditional recipes and common vegetables such as ajvar, pickles, cheese and other dairy products. After the war and Massacre at Krusha e Madhe in 1999, the women of Krusha e Madhe formed multiple women’s associations and presented themselves to the marketplace by selling pickles alone at the beginning. Afterwards, they managed to expand their market share by opening micro-enterprises such as Apetiti, "Krushe" cooperative, and Drita e Krushes. These small businesses are supplied with processed vegetables and other traditional recipes.

The Massacre at Krusha e Madhe
The people of Krusha e Madhe have witnessed one of the greatest war disasters of the Kosovo War in 1999. The interesting yet tragic fact about the Massacre of Krusha e Madhe is that most, if not all, of the men there were killed and most of their bodies have still not been found.

War Crimes
The war in Krusha e Madhe is noted to be a massacre due to the population indictment against the Serbian Military. In 1999, the village of Krusha e Madhe has been attacked by the Serbian armed forces and most of the territory was destructed. At first, it started with the residents of Krusha e Madhe being forced to leave their own village and once they did, the houses of these villagers were all burnt to their roots. The Serbian army ordered the male villagers to gather and line up. The men ranged from the age of 14 to 73. Afterwards, their houses, personal documents, and valuables were burned. Most importantly, all of these men were shot to death. Their families (women and children) were forced to leave the place and head to the forests near the village. Many immediately went in the direction of the country of Albania.

Casualties and Missing People
Two years after the devastation of the resident, there has been an exhibition held in Krusha e Madhe in which everything experienced from these villagers was presented. In this event, the massacre was being presented with different pictures, real skeletons, and executed bodies. There have been statistical data about this massacre and the overall number of these deaths throughout the dates 25, 26 and 27 March 1999. According to BBC news approximately 105 Kosovo Albanian males were murdered by the Serbian Police and 793 houses were burned down. However, there are also a lot of people missing whose bodies were never found, so the number of casualties totals up to 241 civilians. Additionally, there were 8 massive graves, 2 crematoriums and many other individual graves. Overall, today there are 139 widows and approximately 500 children left as orphans.

Based on reports from OSCE, Human Rights Watch and many other press accounts, Krusha e Madhe is considered to be one of the most damaged villages as a result of the 1999 war in Kosovo, and it is known to be the village of widowed women. The women, in absence of their men, had to become the heads of households and protect their families. Years after the war, their houses were finally rebuilt, which was the first step towards recovery.

Developments and Businesses
After the war, some of the women of Krusha e Madhe established an association called “Widowed Women” (Grate e Veja) which initially wanted to focus on finding missing people from the region. After it received no attention or support, the women of the association decided to get to work and provide for their families. They started doing work that used to be done by the men like planting the soil and farming. The association quickly became well-known and was changed to the “Krusha” agricultural cooperative which sold vegetables and processed (canned) ones. As the requests multiplied, so did the number of workers and productions. There are currently around 25 women who work full-time with the help of almost a hundred others who contribute in different ways. Out of the 25 women, 23 of them are widows whose husbands are either missing or were killed during the Massacre of Krusha e Madhe. Today, the cooperative supplies 28 markets around Kosovo with different products that are based on traditional recipes. Although, even with the cooperative’s success, many of the families of Krusha still need social assistance to get by. This is mainly because the work they do is seasonal (when the crops grow). Women of Krusha e Madhe have changed their own fate. Before the women of this place changed the state of it and developed its economy, extreme poverty and horrible life conditions were the norm. They gave their absolute maximum to help their families live a better, secure life.



The Rahovec municipality, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development (MAFRD), USAID, and other sponsors, were all supporters of a workshop for farmers and the growing of their crops. Around 80,000€ were invested in this workshop and 30 women of Krusha who are widows are hired full-time to work with the crops. The workshop's opening was on May 30th, 2011 in Krusha e Madhe with various politicians and donors present. This investment in the village’s agriculture is considered to be one of the best initiatives by the MAFRD to help female farmers who suffered during the war provide a more secure future for their families. In this workshop, the village residents learn to take care of crops, use them to create final products, and then sell them in the markets. Before this project, the women of Krusha e Madhe worked by hand, but now, with donations from different organizations and ministries, they can work faster and more efficiently with the use of different machines. These investments are a huge success as Krusha e Madhe is a leader in the selling of vegetables like pickles, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes etc. It is also known for the production of ajvar, a widely popular type of relish in Kosovo. The opening of the new production line which included ajvar was made possible by additional donations from USAID and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development (MAFRD).

Purchases and sales presented in the following table (Table 1) describe the detailed flow of "Ola" Enterprise and women processors from Krushe. One can clearly see the usefulness of this type of business model since the gross profit justifies the investments made initially.

''Tabela 1. Purchases and sales of "Ola" Enterprise - September 2008 - August 2009

Drita e Krushes
In 1999, the women of Krusha e madhe were left without homes and with no source of income. One of the first initiatives to help these women was from Ms. Ola Syla, the founder and manager of an NGO called "Drita e Krushes"

"Drita e Krushes" representatives traveled from Prishtina to Krusha e Madhe for many times ever since 1999, in order to help the women who were left widows after the massacre of Krusha. At first, they had to set up a non-governmental organization (NGO) in which the assistance would be donations from different international organizations. These projects were donor drive since the women of Krusha e Madhe had no previous experience in entrepreneurship. With the aids given, the goods were initially transported from Krusha e Madhe to the citizens of Prishtina. For four years, the goods were ordered from familiar people of heads of the organization and it got popular in that manner. However, this way of exporting goods was not efficient enough. With the help of Swiss InterCoropration the women of Krusha were supplied with jars to use for the processed vegetables. They were placed on shelves in a store which was opened in Prishtina in 2001. At that period, the production of processed vegetables was promoted and once it started, the business had great success. First they started off with a small room where 20 employees were hired and only 300kg of peppers were available. Looking at the fact that these were sold out very fast, the quantity of production had to increase. In 2002, the women participated in the AgroKos fair, which is an agricultural fair which aims to give farmers the opportunity to present their crops and products. For their traditional recipes, the women of Krusha won the gold medal.

For seven years in a row, "Drita e Krushes" was the only business in Kosovo selling traditional products and processed vegetables which were made in rural areas. In 2004, the business which was opened in Prishtina expanded with a depot and a working space due to the funds collected from donations. In this year, the store had 300 women employed working on the products. The women received a wage monthly and this income was used in a very beneficial way to develop their lives.

Donators:
 * [InterCooperation]


 * [Rahovec Municipality]


 * [KCSF]


 * [UNDP]


 * [USAID]

In the initial phases of “Drita e Krushes”, its representatives in association with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation organized various informal trainings for the women in the organization. This skills development program in Krusha had three main intervention strategies: Opportunity Groups (learning groups), Private Sector training and Supply Chain linkages. The trainings were very basic and tackled matters like sanitation maintenance, reading and writing, and working with the machines donated from the organizations mentioned above. The purpose of all this is to deliver enhanced services to developing communities, unemployed people, and private, small businesses like those in Krusha e Madhe.



“Grate e veja” (The Widowed Women)
In 2005, Fahrije Hoti from Krusha e Madhe, whose husband is still on the missing persons list, initiated an organization called “Grate e Veja” (The widowed Women), to seek assistance on investigation of the missing persons. However, achieving minimal results on revealing the fate of missing persons, the women of Krusha e madhe had to get back to their primary duties such as nurturing their children, normalize their life and generate income. In the same year, they started operating under the name of the organization, planting and renewing their lands. Soon they started producing traditional recipes and conserving winter food. With the demands rising, this organization expanded its producing capacities and started hiring more women. This was important because with the help of various organizations, families of Krusha e Madhe could live their lives again with better life conditions.

Association of the Widowed Women “Krusha”
In 2010, “Grate e veja” was transformed in the agricultural cooperative called “Krusha", an independent non-profit organization (NGO). Its profits and any other income generated are used to support those in financial need and further expand their NGO. The main offices of “Krusha” are located in the village of Krusha e Madhe and in the Municipality of Rahovec. The official representative of this organization is Fahrije Hoti and there are in overall five members that make up the organization’s board. In addition, “Krusha” has both permanent and seasonal workers.



The objectives of “Krusha”
One of the primary goals of “Krusha” organization is to create the necessary conditions for the widowed women to run their businesses on their own. So far, positive results are seen regarding the development of women’s organizational and entrepreneurial skills. This has helped them to be engaged in cultivating their agricultural goods and be able to manage the economical as well as financial aspects of their businesses. One of the many projects of “Krusha” organization involved enabling women to receive driving licenses so that they would be more independent in terms of moving freely from the village to other business destinations. In addition, with the unique traditional recipe, this cooperative has managed to supply its products to approximately 28 markets in numerous cities of Kosovo.