About the Project
In Northern Uganda, local communities gave up their own land so refugee settlements could exist,
but the land they gave was already arid. And every year it got harder. Trees were cut down for firewood, for houses, for survival. The more people took, the less the land could give.
Danish Church Aid came with an agricultural resilience design, aid in the form of restoration.
A plan to work the soil back to life and therefore being able to provide food security for the refugees in an already challenging world where food aid is drastically cut.
The Approach
I filmed the project in three phases: before, during, after.
Before, the land as it was dry and depleted.
During, digging up the soil, making irrigation systems and plating of trees and vegetables.
After, the transformed land, and what that transformation means for the people who live on it.
To carry the film emotionally, I followed, a refugee on the settlement.
Through her, we don’t just see the land change. We feel it.
Guiding us through the three phases is Martha, from DCA.
She narrates the shift from arid to fertile, and explains the thinking behind the design as we move through it.
