A harvest of life in Albania

Sonila says her family are working as a team after receiving their seeds

Simple packs of seeds are helping to transform lives in Eastern Europe.

Seeds, tools and training are being provided by Mission Without Borders to struggling families across the region.

The crops they are able to grow make all the difference between having enough food to eat each day and going hungry to bed.

Sonila Korra lives with her husband and five children in Sukth, Albania. Like many families, they own their own land but they had little money to buy the seeds and equipment necessary to farm it.

The family were weighed down by the pressures of poverty and unemployment, with Sonila even forced to scavenge rubbish tips to find things to sell.

Domestic violence added to the difficulties and the children were not even able to afford the pens and books they needed for school.

The family struggled with poverty and never had enough food to eat. Now they are self-sufficient

"It is so hard to cope with life when you have nothing to give the children to eat," Sonila explains.

The simple seed box from MWB has changed their lives. Not only has the harvest put more food on their table, it has brought the family together and for Sonila especially it is a source of immense pride.

"We work together as a team now," she explains. "We are not the family we were. The seeds are changing our relationships, our behaviour and our lives."

Through the Seeds of Hope initiative, other families like the Korras are being helped to farm the land they own and lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

Today, the Korra family are self-sufficient and the children are able to go to school each day knowing that when they come home, there will be food to eat.

"We have never been like this before," says Sonila. "I am not the Sonila I was. Your Seeds of Hope gave us everything we needed to cultivate the land and the fruit of our hard work is on the table. We thank God."