Seeds of Sunshine

Alex Odongo is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. After decades of an insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army — a rebel group defined by its brutal tactics, which often targeted civilians — that left the country ravaged and its people nearly hopeless, the sun is beginning to shine again in northern Uganda.

Sunflowers bloom across Alex Odongo's cropfields in northern Uganda's Pader District. Photo: Taylor Wegner/Mercy Corps

That is, with the help of Mercy Corps and his sunflowers.

Alex is part of one of the numerous producer groups participating in a programme entitled Stability, Peace, and Reconciliation In Northern Uganda. Through this programme, Mercy Corps has partnered with Mukwano, a Ugandan company that produces a wide array of consumer products, from soaps to vegetable oils. This partnership is providing sunflower seeds and training, along with farming tools, to help increase the livelihoods of those returning to their ancestral villages after years of living in displacement camps
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This increase in income does not come without hard work.

“I get up at 6:30 a.m. to travel to the field, and I finish for the day at 6:00 p.m.,” Alex tells me. When asked about troubles with his crops he says, “I’ve had a small problem with beetles and the drought.”

But even with these problems, you won’t hear Alex complaining. “Mercy Corps has given me the hope that I can grow more crops and buy more land,” Alex assures me.

“I’ll harvest 15 to 18 bags of sunflower seeds” says Alex, “and each bag weighs 50 to 60 kilograms.” At the price that Mukwano set, Alex may earn up to 300,000 Ugandan Shillings (more than £90).

“The money will pay for school fees for my three children, and the money I don’t spend will help me to buy more land and hire help for my fields.”

But Alex has even bigger thoughts for the future.

“The training Mercy Corps has given me has let me dream about a house, not just a hut," he says. "Without Mercy Corps, all of this would not have been possible.”

So while the daylight hours may be waning in Alex's village, his dreams are not.