Who We Are

She was eight years old when she first experienced homelessness.

One day, Victoria and her siblings had a home. Next, they were standing outside a locked door. Their father had left. Rent had gone unpaid. Everything they owned remained inside the house while they searched for somewhere safe to sleep. The future felt uncertain. But her mother refused to give up.

A woman who once lived comfortably suddenly found herself raising seven children alone. She sold fish in roadside markets across Kampala. She worked long hours. She carried burdens no child should ever witness. Yet even in the hardest moments, she never stopped helping others.

One evening, she met a homeless boy outside church and brought him home. She gave him clothes, a meal, and a place to sleep. Victoria never forgot it; not because her family had abundance, but because they chose compassion when they had almost nothing. Years later, Victoria was helping her mother sell fish to pay school fees. On her walks home late at night, she passed children sleeping on the streets, children searching for food, children searching for safety, children who reminded her of herself. She wanted to help, but she didn't know how.

Then, in 2014, during a university internship, she was challenged to create a community project around an issue she cared about. She chose street-connected children. Together with three fellow students, she started with the only thing they had: art. They painted stones, sold them to raise money, and used the proceeds to teach art classes on the roadside. What began as a class assignment became a promise—a promise that every child deserves to be seen, a promise that talent can exist anywhere, and a promise that difficult circumstances should never define a person's future.

Streetlights Uganda was born from that promise.

Today, what started on the streets of Kampala has grown into a movement reaching children, youth, and women across Uganda. More than 2,700 children have participated in Streetlights programs. Women have built livelihoods through vocational training. Children have returned to school. Young artists who once lived on the streets have had their work exhibited internationally and featured on the covers of global publications.

In 2025, Streetlights opened Jephthah, Uganda's first art residence for former street-connected children, a safe place where healing, creativity, and opportunity come together.