Relief needed for Samalie and her LGBTQ friends from Uganda

Could you please support Samalie and this group of 10 LGBTQ people from Uganda? This is a group of 5 TGNB folks and 5 men who are and gay who are all part of this team of people who advocate for each other and for LGBTQ+ rights and the. They live in a refugee camp outside of Juba in East Africa. They are being discriminated against by the staff who are from South Sudan in this camp who work for Across and the World Food Programme (WFP). Across is the Kenya based agency that administers the services in this camp for the UNHCR . These people and other refugees from Uganda who are LGBTQ+ and people who are LGBTQ+ from other countries who came to this camp to seek asylum are not being given the resources they are required to get to have to buy food, get medical and health care services, as well as other basic necessities to live including bedding, cooking utensils , hot water and access to sanitary latrines. They are overlooked , dismissed and discriminated against by the the people who work for these agencies in the camp. The 5 folks in this group who are TGNB have been told during assessment transphobic comments. They are not able to support people who are trans and non binary who want to apply for asylum or when getting health care and they are not evaluating their cases accurately. The person who was doing the assessment for her asylum case told her an abusive comment that is traumatizing for me to write here .

The WFP is required to provide food for every refugee who lives in a refugee camp who is applying for asylum.

Samalie is a transgender woman and a trans rights activist from Uganda who now lives in a refugee camp in East Africa. At this time she asked me to not to disclose the name of the camp and in what country it is located because Samalie has been threatened to be imprisoned by the people who work there who claim they are country authorities and tell her that if they find out that she is asking for support they will stop working on her asylum case and imprison her. This is a human rights violation.

She needs to apply to asylum to U.S., Canada, the U.K., Europe and Australia and other countries where a trans person can be free and safe to live as their true and authentic self. Samalie is applying for asylum based on fear of persecution and discrimination because of her gender identity. She and the other 4 trans and non binary people in this group have experienced discrimination, physical assault, coercion, exploitation, threats of imprisonment and harassment in Uganda and also in Kakuma because they are trans and non binary and part of the LGBTQ community . There are also 5 other men who are gay who are from Uganda who are part of this group. They also experience discrimination and harassment.

Living where they are in this camp they experience discrimination and verbal assault and harassment from the other refugees who live there who are not tolerant of trans and other LGBTQ+ folks and are outwardly aggressive.

Samalie and the other nine folks don’t feel safe and are vulnerable to attacks and theft from other refugees.

My name is Eliza Dudelzak. I live in Fort Lauderdale. I met Samalie in March. Samalie wrote to me on Facebook about her experience as a trans asylum seeker from Uganda. She asked if I could help her and her friends to tell others about this crisis and to help them to pay for food and their other basic needs that they don’t have access to and are being denied where they live. I will be sending the money that will be donated to Samalie’s M-PESA account using the World Remit app or the Sendwave app. Could you please read about her story in this campaign and make a contribution to support her and her other friends who are TGNB and also part of the LGBTQ+ community

This is what Samalie wrote that she asked me to include in this campaign.

Hello. My name is Samalie. I am a transgender woman from Uganda, I am part of the LGBTIQ community and I am an asylum seeker now. I lived in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya for the past five years after fleeing Uganda. I now live in another refugee camp in East Africa where the UNHCR is willing to help me to apply for asylum in this country. I have always stood up for and spoke up to defend trans rights and LGBTIQ rights. I tell others about the injustices that we face as LGBTIQ people. I speak up for myself and also help others who I know who are LGBTQ and all people to have a voice. My activism and gender identity is not hidden and this has exposed me to a lot of physical and psychological torture for the past years. Unfortunately I have been forced to flee from the country where I was living before and where I was applying for asylum because this country’s government has recently passed anti LGBTQ rights laws that restrict the rights of LGBTQ people who live there, including refugees from other East African countries. In this refugee camp where I lived for 5 years I faced inhumane challenges, police arrests and raids at our residence in the camp. I have been discriminated against, accused of promoting and recruiting boys into homosexuality by the host community in Kakuma, threatened to be killed, bullied and physically attacked and beaten because of my gender identity and sexuality. My living condition is one of the worst a human being would ever think of or wish someone to live. Each day that goes by I face these challenges which leave me in tears and make me think I do not matter. I am experiencing trauma. I have no solution since I can't work because no one wants to employ me here in this country where I moved to and live because I am part of the LGBTIQ community . Many people like me have been forced to flee the other camp to another one to find safety and opportunity but this country we live in now is not better. I am with three other trans women and we are trying to make two ends meet but this place is not better. We are suffering out here with no resources at all. We are barely hanging on. We seek your assistance in any possible way that you can. We have no food, the shelters are inhabitable, we sleep outside. No blankets, we don't even have containers to store some water. The situation is dire. Please find it in your heart to consider looking into our plea

We need your help to do this!

Your donation will benefit Samalie and the other 9 people who are members of this Transgender and Nonbinary community (TGNB) and LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group.

Samalie’s friends who are also from Uganda and are LGBTQ community are Hady who goes by he/him, Steven who goes by he/him, Mathius who goes by he/him, Kyanda who goes by he/him , Pato who goes by he/him, Andy who goes by he/him, Pretty who goes by she/her, Kelly who goes by she/her and Jaymo who goes by they/them.

When you help, even with $5 USD you will help them to buy food in the camp trading center , to pay for urgent medical treatment for conjunctivitis and diarrhea , to buy clean sheets, pillows and blankets, toothbrush and toothpaste for brushing teeth, soap for bathing and laundry, nail clippers, shampoo and conditioner for hair, deodorant, toilet paper, essential clothing and to pay for the service for their phone and for transportation to Juba.

Samalie and this group of 10 friends now live and sleep outside in tents because the shelters are inhabitable. They have access to drinking water but they don’t have containers for storing drinking water. They don’t have permission to get a job and they are not getting money to buy food that is allowed to every person every month and this stops them from buying food products that are sold in the camp for refugees . Six of the people were not given a card that is issued by the World Food Programme for every refugee who comes to this camp that they need to get a monthly food stipend. 4 people did get this card. For the peopels ho do not have this card that is needed to get a monthly stipend they do not tell them when they can and how they can get this. They only tell them that they “need to wait” or give them a date and don’t do this. There is no communication from the agencies with the Ugandan refugees. All communication is in Arabic and most people from Uganda do not speak Arabic. They only learn by seeing that when the other refugees who are from Sudan are going to get their benefits that this when they should also go. This is chaotic and destabilizing and there is no equality or respect for them.

They left the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya in January and in February to move to this camp and to apply for asylum in this country. The Kenyan government in January passed laws to reject asylum claims for all LGBTQ people and will not grant refugee status to anyone who is LGBTQ who has come to Kakuma to seek asylum. Samalie and this group of 10 people who this campaign is for need my and your support to help them uphold their right to be safe, supported and to care for thier well being and have access to what they need and to apply for asylum in all countries where they can live and have equal rights, equal opportunities and are safe and supported to live as who they are. Thank you