33-year-old Olgun Yıldız, who lives with his family in the Kürtün district of Gümüşhane, Turkey, had his right leg amputated at the age of 7 due to a tumor on his kneecap. Olgun Yıldız, the youngest of a four-person household whose sole source of income in the village is animal husbandry, began working as a shepherd at the age of nine to support his family.
Yıldız, who walks 15 kilometers a day with crutches on the Kuzugölü Plateau to graze her family’s small cattle, said shepherding became a passion for him and that he never felt the absence of his right leg while walking in the mountains. He stated that shepherding and animal husbandry is a labor of love, saying, “I’m used to walking from one mountain to the next as if I had two legs. Transhumance is a beautiful thing. That’s the meaning of life for me when I go home in the evening and have hot tea brewed. I travel 10-15 kilometers per day, but the work I do is worthwhile. I also adore sheep.”
Recep Ergin- Uğur Bulut