Will You Stand in the Gap With Me for Acid Attack Survivors This Holiday Season?
My dear online supporters,
I appreciate your support over the years in making a difference in the lives of acid attack survivors in Uganda.
If you wonder why I keep doing this, let me share a detail in my story and my WHY?
It was during the Christmas holiday of 2011, when I lay in a hospital bed fighting for my life after surviving an acid attack. Around me, other survivors did not make it. I watched people die simply because help came too late. In that moment, I made a promise: if I lived, my life would be used to help others survive.
In 2012, I left the hospital alive—but completely maimed. I had lost my face, but not my purpose. Survival was no longer just about me. I could not forget those who never walked out of that hospital.
That promise became a mission.
In 2014, I founded the Center for Rehabilitation of Survivors of Acid and Burns Violence (CERESAV) so that no acid attack survivor would face this journey alone. CERESAV provides lifesaving medical and surgical support, nutrition, psychosocial care, rehabilitation, community reintegration, and education for survivors’ children. CERESAV is a place where lives are rebuilt, dignity is restored, and hope is reignited.
At CERESAV, survivors learn to dream again. They heal—not only physically, but emotionally and socially. They find belonging after unimaginable loss.
Your generosity makes this possible.
When you give to CERESAV, you help keep survivors alive. You keep children in school. You help women and men return to their communities with confidence, skills, and hope. Your gift tells a survivor: your life still matters.
Every acid attack survivor needs a source of hope—someone willing to stand in the gap between suffering and survival.
Today, that source of hope can be you.
Thank you for giving hope where it is needed most.
Hanifa Nakiryowa
On behalf of CERESAV