With the support of our worldwide family of friends, volunteers and supporters, Starlight Family Charity Organisation works alongside vulnerable children, adults and families in the villages of Nasuuna and Nakassagazi, Kiboga, Uganda.

Our founder, Lukyamuzi James, understands these challenges personally. Having experienced a difficult start in life himself, James knows first-hand the realities faced by many people within his local community.

This experience inspired him to create Starlight Family, bringing people together to provide practical support, create opportunities and help individuals and families build safer, healthier and more sustainable futures.

Today, donations help Starlight Family meet essential needs within the community, providing food, clothing, safe shelter, healthcare and access to education for children, adults and families who need additional support.

But our work is also about the future. Alongside meeting immediate needs, Starlight Family is working towards long-term, sustainable change by creating opportunities for people to develop skills, earn an income and support themselves and their families.

Our aim is to help improve living conditions for the most vulnerable whilst developing community-led projects that can generate income, strengthen local independence and, ultimately, help Starlight Family become increasingly self-supporting.

"In the 1980s, Uganda was devastated by conflict, which had a particularly severe impact on my home district of Kiboga. Many people lost their lives, leaving behind children who had lost their parents, homes and families.

My own parents were killed during this conflict. The family who cared for me as an orphan told me that my father had gone to fight in the war while my mother was pregnant with me. He never returned.

When I was just two weeks old, my mother was raped and killed. I was left without either of my parents and was raised by another family before later being taken into the care of St Noah's Family orphanage.

These experiences have stayed with me throughout my life. I know what it means for a child to grow up without the security of their parents, and I know how important it can be when somebody chooses to care, to help and to offer hope for a different future."

Since 2010, James's energy and dedication have helped Starlight Family grow from his own experience of receiving support into an organisation that now extends that support to others, including people living in remote communities where access to practical and emotional help can be limited.

Here, James speaks about his inspiration for Starlight Family...

While growing up at St Noah's orphanage in Kiboga, James received sponsorship from David Amrein, helping to provide for his education and other essential needs. David hoped that the opportunities James received would one day enable him, in turn, to help others.

That hope became part of the inspiration behind Starlight Family.

Below, David speaks about how he first came to know James...