Support LGBTQIA refugees in Eastern Africa!

Hi, my name is Megan (she/her), and I'm fundraising on behalf of Ace (name has been changed for privacy) and his friends, who reside in Eastern Africa. I met Ace through Twitter, where he works to raise awareness for the queer refugees in Kakuma.

Life in Kakuma is quite hard, as homophobia and hatred put these vulnerable refugees in danger daily. Food, medicines, clothes, and even building supplies are difficult to come by, and these refugees rely almost wholly on outside support. The UNHCR has not followed through with offers of help, and the future is quite uncertain for these refugees.

Ace, my dear friend, has written the following text about living in Kakuma. He fled Uganda at just 17 years old and has been in Kakuma for over two years. He describes some of the attacks the community has faced and what daily life is like.

My name is Ace (he/him). I'm a Ugandan by nationality and LGBTIQ activist, leader and representative here in Kenya, Kakuma refugee camp, where I came to seek àsylum due to high risk of insecurities and the Uganda policy not endorsing gay rights.

Kakuma refugee camp is located in north-western Turkana county of Kenya, East Africa. It has over 200,000 refugees, among which over 1000 are the LGBT who have been victims of HOMOPHOBIA and arson attacks.

We have faced a lot of homophobia in this environment, from fellow refugees and the Kenyan natives. The bigotry has been reported several times to the people responsible, including police, Danish refugee camp (DRC), RAS(refugee affairs secretariat)and UNHCR. However, help is still in vain, and authorities say that they're still investigating about our cause together with insecurities that we've got. This has made us seek support from fellow LGBTIQ organizations and individual heart full people to attain medication from private hospitals in the camp.

Additionally, food provided to us by the UNHCR through WFP is very little to sustain us for a month as distributed. Thus seeking for support to overcome food scarcity and hunger. We will be very glad to receive any positive feedback in terms of advice, advocacy and spreading awareness or any other support!

Thanks.

LIFE AT KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP

Generally, life at Kakuma refugee camp is extremely hard for the LGBTQI community due to rampart HOMOPHOBIA within the camp. This is witnessed by daily attacks by homophobic fellow refugees and the co-host community.

LGBTQI refugees live under great fear whereby we're being targeted by homophobes (mostly the transgenders and crossdressers are at higher risk). This has resulted in severe injuries and permanent scars and infliction of massive pain on people's bodies because these homophobes ambush when armed with machetes, stones, metallic rods and other harmful objects. In due course, property was lost, and even lives were lost.

So far we've lost three of our mates already. This was witnessed when two LGBTQI refugees were set on fire where they suffered third-degree burns. This resulted in one losing his life, and the other is on life support in a hospital up to now, struggling with scars.

On that, sexual harassment has also been witnessed here at Kakuma refugee camp to the LGBTQI community, where lesbians on several occasions have been raped on multiple occasions. This has made Kakuma the most hostile land for LGBTQI community beyond a reasonable doubt.

Furthermore, LGBTQI community live under great suffering due to the fact they are willing to work to earn a living but fail to get employment opportunities due to their sexual orientation. This has made life so much hard for the minority group being marginalized amidst this arid area of Kakuma. We have faced various attacks from homophobes and illnesses related to poor living standards.

Though, despite all the misery, we try to find some time to kill the stress when celebrating official LGBTIQ days and festivals, in case support is available.

In conclusion, I'm so glad to share this with you and thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

I request you to continue being supportive by sharing more of our stories and experiences with others, signing our petition, and also donating to us if possible for us to find some food supplies and other necessities for life maintenance.