Victoria Nyanjura is a community activist born in the Oyam District in the Lango Sub-region of Northern Uganda in 1982. While a student at St. Mary’s College Aboke in Uganda’s Kole District, Victoria was one of 139 girls abducted from the school on October 10th, 1996 by the lord's resistance army. The deputy headmistress, Sister Rachele Fassera pursued the rebels and negotiated the release of 109 girls. Unfortunately, 30 of the girls were kept , Victoria was one of the 30. She was kept in captivity for 8 years, tortured and sexually abused. In 2004 she escaped. As a survivor of the Lord’s Resistance Army, she’s become a woman’s rights advocated, who shares her story and the stories of others to raise awareness. She’s worked as a volunteer at the Justice of Reconciliation Project, a non-governmental organization that aims to rehabilitate war-torn communities in Uganda; she also went on to work for them in the Gender Justice Department. Nyanjura has also worked at the International Justice Mission which helps protect Ugandan widows with property ownership. Nyanjura is the founder of Women in Action for Women, a non-governmental organization that aims to improve the lives of women and youth through vocational training, business skills and guidance in accessing community and government services. Nyanjura is also a founding member of the Leadership council for the Global Survivor Network; it is an international group of survivor leaders who wish to created safe communities through justice systems to protect the most vulnerable. She wants survivors across the globe to have the opportunity to share their experience and learn from each other doing this will give a stronger voice for policy reform. By uniting all survivors they can push one agenda instead of dividing attention. Survivors will be visible, thus making it hard for perpetrators to continue their illegal acts. Victoria obtained a Bachelor’s of Development studies from Kyambogo University, she also holds a postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluaation from Uganda Management Institute. As of February 2020, Victoria is pursuing a Master’s of Global Affairs specializing in international Peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. In 2019 Victoria received Amnesty International Gretta Sagan Award for women’s and children’s rights. The award recognizes the outstanding achievement of women doing effective work to protect the dignity, liberty, and lives of women and children in places where there are human rights violations.

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