When the school is your home

Last time I visited Uganda was in 2013. I used to live there, now I come to visit. For work and to see my beloved country again. When you go to Uganda the country fills your heart and when you leave it it keeps a piece of your heart. It’ll keep it until you get back, when you find the missing piece again.

This time I was commissioned to photograph a project of the Benja foundation. A foundation dedicated to orphans in one of Kampala’s slums. Large families live here in small houses with little money. When a child is old enough, (s)he is expected to work or get married. There is no money to send all children to school, so they are sent out on the street. To make money or to live simply because there is no place at home. Other than that domestic violence is like normality here. The Benja Foundation doesn’t agree and is therefore committed to taking care of these children, getting them back to school and providing them with full bellies.

A small impression of the former street children and their school, which is now also their “home”.