wfn.org | LWI 2008-093 FEATURE: Returnees Anticipate Bountiful Harvest

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> FEATURE: Returnees Anticipate Bountiful Harvest LWF
>SudanProgram Assists Families with Seeds and Tools

IKOTOS, Southern Sudan/GENEVA 23 December 2008 (LWI) - Martina
Ikanga lives in Momoria village, about eight kilometers from the
project site of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department
for World Service (DWS) country program in Ikotos county,
Southern Sudan. She is among thousands of refugees who decided to
return to their original homes after the 2005 signing of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudan Government and
the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. Ikanga spent 19
years in a refugee camp in Adjumani district, northern Uganda. At
home, she takes care of her family comprising seven members
including five grandchildren, left behind by her late daughter.
The 53 year-old was identified as one of the 4,000 household
representatives benefiting from the Australian Lutheran World
Service (ALWS)-funded project providing seeds and agricultural
hand tools.

During a recent visit with the family, and asked about the
LWF-donated seeds, Ikanga responded with extreme happiness
pointing at the gardens planted with sorghum, cowpeas and
groundnuts. She mentioned that when the first rains came in
April, the family had neither adequate food, nor did they imagine
they would have seeds for planting. 

Life as returnees was also very difficult -the conditions at the
refugee camp were far better compared to life in the village.
Ikanga narrated how she found new hope and optimism when she
unexpectedly received the seeds from LWF/DWS Sudan office toward
the end of June 2008. The seeds were planted in late July through
early August and the performance of the crops she is preparing to
start harvesting makes her confident that she will soon have
enough food for her household. The cowpeas, a fast growing
vegetable, did very well and rescued her family from famine which
hit her village during the cultivation period. 

She plans to preserve some seeds from whatever she will harvest
for the next planting season.
 Naboi: Answer to Prayers
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-organized
repatriation program carried out in April 2008 from Bweyale camp,
northern Uganda, included Naboi Sabina and her family - husband,
six children and two dependents. Like many other Southern Sudan
families, Naboi fled her village in 1992 to take refuge in
Uganda. After 16 years in exile, the family decided to resettle
in Lotome village in Ikotos. 

They envisaged a different lifestyle as returnees after closing
the chapters of hardships in refugee camps but they encountered
new challenges. Most of the relatives and friends whom Sabina
counted on for assistance with planting seeds did not even have
enough for themselves. And if they could have accessed the seeds
from elsewhere, the months of May and June were unusually dry for
planting. 

According to Sabina, her prayers bore fruits when God sent
LWF/DWS Sudan staff to Lotome village at the beginning of July.
Every returnee household in the village, including Sabina’s was
provided with five kilograms each of maize and groundnut seeds,
two kilograms each of sorghum and cowpeas, and a kilogram of
sesame. 

Sabina planted all the seeds she received and she is extremely
happy with the crops' progress. But she is worried about the
excessive rainfall. She says too much rain is not good for
sorghum especially at flowering stage, similarly for groundnuts
when they are ready for harvest. In addition, there are many
monkeys in the area, which can also be a menace to food crops. 

Sabina’s family first relied on the cowpeas because they grow
very fast and the vegetables are more palatable when tender.
Looking back, she says she does not know what she would have done
to sustain her family without the seeds provided by LWF/ALWS.
Hoping that nature wouldn’t turn her face against the villagers
by extending the inconvenient rains, Sabina was confident that
she would harvest most of the crops in the field by the end of
November. 

"Thanks to the response to my prayers through ALWS and LWF,"
Sabina concluded, "I don’t think I'll have to worry about feeding
ten mouths including myself until the next planting season." 

ALWS, a partner organization of LWF/DWS, serves as the relief
and development arm of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

The current DWS Sudan office was re-established in October 2007,
with the objective to facilitate the smooth reintegration of
returnees to their home areas. Work with community members
includes rehabilitation and reconstruction, building up
sustainable livelihoods, fostering peace and reconciliation,
gender issues, sustaining the environment, HIV and AIDS, and
community capacity building. (754 words)

More information on DWS work in Sudan is available at:
http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/DWS/Country_Programs/DWS-Sudan.html

Donations to LWF/DWS work globally can be made online at:
http://donations.lutheranworld.org (
http://donations.lutheranworld.org/ )

(This feature was written by Andrew Odong, DWS/South Sudan
Ikotos project manager.)

*The article is in a new LWI series focusing on the topic “Give
Us Today Our Daily Bread,” the theme of the LWF Eleventh
Assembly, which will take place 20–27 July 2010 in Stuttgart,
Germany.
 *        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of over 68.3 million. The LWF acts
on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such
as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

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