Help the COSF 19 Recover from Imprisonment
Donation protected
Children of the Sun Foundation (COSF), a Ugandan nonprofit led by and advocating for LGBTQ+ youth and sex workers, operates multiple programs and services, including an LGBTQ+ youth shelter in Kyengera, just outside of the capital city of Kampala. The shelter provides accommodation to those with nowhere else to go, often people facing family rejection. Twenty-one people (gay and bi men and trans women) were living at the shelter on March 29, 2020 when the police came and arrested all of the residents and two staff members. The official charges related to not social distancing, but since they were inside their own residence it is clear this was an excuse to continue harassment of LGBTQ Ugandans that has gone for years.
The police ended up holding 19 of the COSF residents and staff in jail for 49 excruciating days. Their torture and abuse is detailed here in graphic detail, including conditions that led to other inmates' deaths from dysentery.
This has been reported on extensively by mainstream media and prominent human rights advocates were involved in the COSF 19's release. My own reporting on the arrests for NewNowNext can be found here (the story as written above is taken from this article).
On May 25 I received an email from COSF Executive Director Henry Mukiibi with this update about his imprisonment. I asked him what they needed and he said: "There is need for a lot to be fixed as many of the things were destroyed and if we are to re-establish we have to start from scratch. There is need to relocate both our organization office, shelter and the individuals involved. We have to rebuild lives of the involved members for a lot of damage has been caused to them and to the organization at large." On May 26 he updated me that they are all living in a hotel. On June 25 I received an update that a partner had paid for temporary individual housing for all 19 members of the group. However, without income, they are struggling even for food.
In this season of Pride, I hope we can come together to support our global community. These siblings in Uganda were taken from their homeless shelter and put in a cell of 275 men who knew about them being LGBTQ+, clearly less "social distancing" than the police claimed to promote. They were starved, beaten, and endured further abuse. The transgender women were put in the same men's prison as the men. Now they are trying to survive in the midst of a pandemic in a country where their identities are illegal. Please donate what you can and share widely.
I (Sarah Prager ) am administering this GoFundMe on behalf of Henry Mukiibi and COSF. They can use the funds however they want (cash to those who were imprisoned, a deposit on new group housing, food, office rent, whatever they want). Because GoFundMe and other American platforms do not support transfers to African banks, I will withdraw the funds myself and then make a donation of the same amount to COSF. I can post screenshots of these transfers (eliminating identifying information) for transparency if requested and COSF will be able to publicly confirm the legitimacy of this fundraiser.
I have set what I hope is a modest goal and will raise it once we meet it!
The police ended up holding 19 of the COSF residents and staff in jail for 49 excruciating days. Their torture and abuse is detailed here in graphic detail, including conditions that led to other inmates' deaths from dysentery.
This has been reported on extensively by mainstream media and prominent human rights advocates were involved in the COSF 19's release. My own reporting on the arrests for NewNowNext can be found here (the story as written above is taken from this article).
On May 25 I received an email from COSF Executive Director Henry Mukiibi with this update about his imprisonment. I asked him what they needed and he said: "There is need for a lot to be fixed as many of the things were destroyed and if we are to re-establish we have to start from scratch. There is need to relocate both our organization office, shelter and the individuals involved. We have to rebuild lives of the involved members for a lot of damage has been caused to them and to the organization at large." On May 26 he updated me that they are all living in a hotel. On June 25 I received an update that a partner had paid for temporary individual housing for all 19 members of the group. However, without income, they are struggling even for food.
In this season of Pride, I hope we can come together to support our global community. These siblings in Uganda were taken from their homeless shelter and put in a cell of 275 men who knew about them being LGBTQ+, clearly less "social distancing" than the police claimed to promote. They were starved, beaten, and endured further abuse. The transgender women were put in the same men's prison as the men. Now they are trying to survive in the midst of a pandemic in a country where their identities are illegal. Please donate what you can and share widely.
I (Sarah Prager ) am administering this GoFundMe on behalf of Henry Mukiibi and COSF. They can use the funds however they want (cash to those who were imprisoned, a deposit on new group housing, food, office rent, whatever they want). Because GoFundMe and other American platforms do not support transfers to African banks, I will withdraw the funds myself and then make a donation of the same amount to COSF. I can post screenshots of these transfers (eliminating identifying information) for transparency if requested and COSF will be able to publicly confirm the legitimacy of this fundraiser.
I have set what I hope is a modest goal and will raise it once we meet it!
Organizer
Sarah Prager
Organizer
Fiskdale, MA