Juan Luis Rod

Isaac was born in 1986 in Uganda. His father died when he was four years old and his relatives kept his business, his house and all his belongings. And they sold them. Her mother was forced to marry another man from the village, but she refused. As a consequence of this decision, it was rejected by all the families in its environment. Soon after she became ill with lung cancer and, having no money, sent Isaac and his brother to Kampala, where a friend was supposed to pick them up and give them a loan to pay for the medicines.

When they arrived in Kampala no one showed up, so Isaac and his brother spent the first night at a taxi stand waiting for the next day to meet their mother's friend. They were five and six years old respectively, and that's how they became street children. They fed on the remains of food that people gave them and slept at the taxi stand, despite not being a safe place. Unicef ​​estimates that there are more than 10,000 children living in the streets in Kampala. The main cause is domestic violence, although there are other factors such as the loss of relatives (the majority affected by HIV).

On the second day, a group of older boys stole what little they had: shoes and T-shirts, and they were left with nothing. But that same day they met Mark, another young man from the street, who helped them and taught them to move around the city. The minors usually live in ghettos where they feel more protected, the largest in Kampala is Kisenyi. The little ones survive by collecting plastic bottles that they then sell at around 200 Ugandan shillings per kilo, around five cents. Older people do some work as assistants in construction, loading in the markets or cleaning houses.

Mark taught Isaac some 'kick boxing' to be able to defend against the attacks of the older boys on the street. Also to move around the neighborhoods of the city, avoiding the most dangerous hours, and locating the safest points of Kampala where to spend the night.

"The night was the most dangerous moment, the groups of older kids who were drugged by sniffing gasoline assaulted us and tried to rape us, and we also suffered attacks from several people hired by wealthy people who were trying to kidnap us to kill us. There is still the belief that to get rich you have to obtain human blood through a sacrificial ritual. I managed to survive several attacks of this type, but my friend Mark died at my side when he was stabbed in the stomach. I saw how they threw him into a canal in the Kivulu neighborhood where they drain the sewage from Kampala", Isaac laments through tears.

After the death of his friend, Isaac realized that he had to learn better 'kick boxing' to defend himself from the dangers of the street. He was pretty good at it, so on a practice basis he started fighting in illegal fights for money. After a few months, he decided to spend his free time and what he knew in teaching other children self-defense.
Street children survive in Kampala in extreme conditions, they do not usually have access to drinking water, food, shelter, medical care, education and protection. Some of them get out of the street through NGOs that rescue them, but for the majority it is very difficult and they end up forming a family with some girl they have met in their same situation. Lacking also sex education there are many unwanted pregnancies at very young ages, and another of the big problems is HIV.

Between what he earned with the fights and with the classes, Isaac managed to improve his level of English and go to college, and his situation improved until it was time to leave the streets. In the attack on his friend Mark swore that if he ever left that situation he would help other children who were going through the same thing as him, and that is how he decided to set up The Dream Foundation of Uganda.

With The Dream Foundation, Isaac aims to offer street children education and food, as well as helping them find a family that can provide them with a roof to live on. Meanwhile, they usually live in ghettos where they feel more protected.

Several children prepare the nets where they will store all the plastic bottles that they collect during the day so that at the end of the day they can sell them to the Kiseny district.

The majority of these children survive on the streets collecting plastic bottles that they store in large networks and then sell them for around 200 Ugandan shillings per kilo, around 5 cents.

Many of these children have suffered violent aggressions, burns, rapes and abuses of all kinds, being marked for life with physical and emotional consequences.

Street children often move in small groups to protect each other, and teenagers take care of the little ones. In the photo, from left to right, Rachel, Sumaya and little Shanti.

In the photo, Isaac teaches some king boxing techniques as self-defense to one of the girls he has managed to get off the street. For her, she found a foster family in Mengo.

In this last year, the foundation of Isaac has received the support and donations of two NGOs, WeArtPhoto and The Blue Butterflies, formed by photographers and videographers, who have also traveled to Kampala to see the situation firsthand, where They have carried out various workshops and games with the children.