MAJA, Croatia — A Croatian pig project initiated nearly four years ago to help refugee farmers return to their lands and begin life again has produced thousands of pigs and benefitted about 500 families, according to Elder Robert Wolthius who serves as a missionary and area welfare agent with his wife, Carolyn, in the Europe East Area.

As a participant in this humanitarian project, the Church donated about 130 pigs.

"The sows were the catalyst that changed things for these remarkable and wonderful people," Elder Wolthius said, noting that by April 1999, the pig program was averaging eight to 13 piglets each litter, giving farmers confidence that the pig industry would be strong again in a few years.

Reflecting back to the early spring of 1998, Elder Wolthius remembered a refugee farmer who had just returned to his farm after six frustrating years in a refugee camp. He found his home, barn and livestock all destroyed. The ravages of civil war in his former country of Yugoslavia had left him with nothing.

"He was nearly a broken man," said Elder Wolthius. "That was the person we met in April 1998."

Like the nearly 20,000 other refugees who are still waiting to return to their farms in the Sisak region of Croatia, the farmer needed help, explained Elder Wolthius.

Under the direction of the Croatia government welfare agent, and with the assistance of Ivan and Mira Dugandzic, members of the Church who serve as humanitarian service volunteers in Zagreb, the refugee received a pregnant sow provided by the Church.

The pig was given to him with the understanding that with the first litter he would donate two female pigs to help another qualified farmer get established.

The farmer was back in the livestock business when his sow gave birth to eight squealing piglets in April 1998. It didn't matter that his large hog shed had been destroyed, or that his small saw mill had been burned, or that his farm was still without electricity, or that he and his wife were living in a makeshift sea container.

"What mattered," said Elder Wolthius, "was that the dignity of this determined and hard-working couple had been restored. Hope, as slim as it had been earlier in the year, was rekindled, and almost overnight, their lives had purpose and meaning. In a few short months, their lives changed dramatically. The barren walls and stark existence they knew in the refugee camp had given way to a new setting where eight squealing piglets soon ran around the pig pen."

By early fall of 1998, after a summer of industry, thrift and support from other people and institutions, the man's farm was beginning to grow, continued Elder Wolthius. He eagerly showed visitors the first brown eggs that had been laid by several young chickens, while sounds of turkeys and ducks were heard across the farm. By harvest time of that year, he was able to purchase a truck to haul tomatoes, peppers, carrots and row crops to markets in Sisak and Zagreb.

Another man who lived in Prnjavor operated a 450-pig farm before the war, explained Elder Wolthius. All that remained of his large barn was a cement slab. Like many of his neighbors, he began life again with a single sow. In time, he was able to share with neighbors to help them establish their livestock operations.

"When Sister Wolthius and I accepted this assignment," Elder Wolthius said, "I wondered if we could transfer the gospel principles of self-reliance to those not of our faith in Croatia. Even more critical, we wondered if we could make it work with people who were returning from several years in refugee camps.

"The success of this story lies in numbers," he added. "The effort has produced thousands of pigs. Already, the program has made a significant contribution toward the re-establishment of the pork industry in Sisak, and in creating employment for hundreds of people.

"We have learned that self-reliance can be restored, to members and those not of our faith, through carefully administered Church welfare programs. What we have found so amazing is that such self-reliance, hope, dignity and an economic future started with a pig."

With the more recent outbreak of conflict in neighboring Kosovo, the refugees of Croatia are also turning their attention to the Kosovar refugees. The Croatians are planning to renovate camps to accommodate between 5,000 to 10,000 refugees.

"Others helped us in our need, now we need to help these people," said Sister Dugandzic.