Founder and Director Women in Action for WomenWomen in Action for Women
Victoria Nyanjura
Victoria hails from Oyam district in northern Uganda. Victoria is a survivor of Lord’s Resistance Army abductions in northern Uganda and a women’s rights advocate. She has shared her story and amplified the stories of other women who went through abduction from local, national and international platforms.
She is a candidate for a Masters in Global Affairs with a concentration in International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Kyambogo University and a Post Graduate Diploma from Uganda Management Institute.
Victoria is the founder of Women in Action for Women, a Ugandan organization that improves the life of women and youth through vocational skills training, business skills enhancement, and supports community governance structures. She recently completed an internship with Generations for Peace based in Washington, D.C.
Victoria is the 2019 recipient of Amnesty International’s Ginetta Sagan Award for Women’s and Children’s Rights, which recognizes the outstanding achievement of women doing effective work, often at great personal risk, to protect the dignity, liberties and lives of women and children in crisis regions where abuse of human rights is widespread.
She is a founding member of the Leadership Council for the Global Survivor Network, an international group of survivor leaders who desire and pursue safe communities through justice systems that protect the most vulnerable. She shares this about her desire to see the Global Survivor Network grow: “Survivors across the globe will have the opportunity to share their experiences and learn from each other. This will give a strong voice for advocacy towards policy reforms, designing of strategies that address the challenges that survivors go through, and the need to put an end to this. This approach is sustainable since we will be able to meet and push for one agenda instead of having divided attention. At the end of the day survivors will gain visibility and the perpetrators will find it hard to continue their criminal acts since the silence will be no more.”
Victoria enjoys going to the gym, interacting with family members, meeting women groups, telling stories and spending time with friends.