Help Trans Refugee Cara go to a Safe Country
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Cara, beautiful Tunisian Trans woman refugee, urgently needs money for housing and food, but also in order to leave the country where she is as a refugee and where she is the constant target of transphobic attacks.
My name is Iman Le Caire. For the past year I have been devoting most of my time, as a volunteer, to saving the lives of transgender women and men, by helping them flee their home countries where they are persecuted and finding trans friendly countries willing to grant them asylum.
I am creating this fundraising for Cara because I need you to help Cara pay for housing, food,... in Athens, while I am working with Trans activists and a lawyer to find a way to have Cara granted asylum in France.
Cara's story, like the story of most Trans refugees and asylum seekers, is heartbreaking. But it is the sad reality and the plight of their lives. Charlie, the amazing young Trans woman activist in Paris whom Cara contacted first and me, we have video's conversations with Cara. We are helping Cara but we need to raise money for Cara quickly, now!
Please take the time to read Cara's painful story:
My name is Cara. I am a Trans woman from Tunisia.
My life has been an arduous journey from the very first day I found out about my femininity when I was 4.
As a kid I used to watch movies and thought I was the female lead actress.
When at school starting at 6 years old so many children and teachers where questioning who I was. Then started the humiliation and harassment. But my goal was to be the best one before joining secondary school. But once at the secondary school it became more horrible. They started beating me up, stealing my money, my food and I was scared but I was the best in my studies.
At home it was a nightmare. Daily fights between my mother and my father because of who I was. I told myself be strong, take care of your future. But eventually I realized I could not take it anymore. I stopped studying so that I could have a job. And then for the first time I had sex with a man. He was my neighbor. He told a lot of people and made a scandal out of it. And then he started meeting me at night, forcing me to have sex with him, promising that he would make the rumors about me stop.
When I was 15 my father kicked me out of the house. I slept in the streets.
I was sleeping with strangers for sex and money. Sometimes I was so tired so that I was sleeping at a random guy's house and realized while sleeping that I was getting fucked.
When I was 17 years old I was sent to jail for 14 months for being gay. They put me in a cell with killers, rapists,... So I ended up being rapped and physically harassed, even by the prison guards.
When I was 19 I started working in resort hotels as a performer. I had a boyfriend. Then the revolution happened. DASH/ISIS men started to terrorize people. They came to my place. They broke into my house, wearing masks hiding their faces and stole everything. One of them stabbed me. I ended up having 14 stitches. So this time I knew I had to leave Tunisia. I collected whatever I had and looked for a country where I could go without a visa.
Then came the devastating news that I was HIV positive.
I managed to leave Tunisia for Turkey, hoping that it would be a more open country. When I realized it was not that welcoming for Trans I took the risk to travel on a zodiac boat to Greece, thinking that Greece being part of the European Community would be a great country for someone like me. After a year in the Lesbos refugee camp I found housing in Athens thanks to an organization and started to study business and work with organizations.
But actually between the rejection of the many straight arab refugees towards people like me and the racism and transphobia of the local population, I realized that Greece was not the country I was dreaming of. I was even subject of beating. The refugee organization put me with straight refugees even if they know that I would end up being raped. My passport got stolen. My residence paper expired and because of the pandemic it will take months to renew .
I was desperate until I found Charlie, trans activist in Paris who immediately put me in contact with Iman Le Caire and her husband Jean-Manuel, both humanitarian activists for Trans Refugees and who work with Charlie. They told me that they will find a way to get me asylum in France, where I could start a new beautiful life, since as a Tunisian woman I speak French fluently.
As they know I have no money left. I am grateful to them for raising money to help me survive in Athens and pay for what it will take to get me asylum in France.
Thank you all for reading my story and for your generosity.
Cara
My name is Iman Le Caire. For the past year I have been devoting most of my time, as a volunteer, to saving the lives of transgender women and men, by helping them flee their home countries where they are persecuted and finding trans friendly countries willing to grant them asylum.
I am creating this fundraising for Cara because I need you to help Cara pay for housing, food,... in Athens, while I am working with Trans activists and a lawyer to find a way to have Cara granted asylum in France.
Cara's story, like the story of most Trans refugees and asylum seekers, is heartbreaking. But it is the sad reality and the plight of their lives. Charlie, the amazing young Trans woman activist in Paris whom Cara contacted first and me, we have video's conversations with Cara. We are helping Cara but we need to raise money for Cara quickly, now!
Please take the time to read Cara's painful story:
My name is Cara. I am a Trans woman from Tunisia.
My life has been an arduous journey from the very first day I found out about my femininity when I was 4.
As a kid I used to watch movies and thought I was the female lead actress.
When at school starting at 6 years old so many children and teachers where questioning who I was. Then started the humiliation and harassment. But my goal was to be the best one before joining secondary school. But once at the secondary school it became more horrible. They started beating me up, stealing my money, my food and I was scared but I was the best in my studies.
At home it was a nightmare. Daily fights between my mother and my father because of who I was. I told myself be strong, take care of your future. But eventually I realized I could not take it anymore. I stopped studying so that I could have a job. And then for the first time I had sex with a man. He was my neighbor. He told a lot of people and made a scandal out of it. And then he started meeting me at night, forcing me to have sex with him, promising that he would make the rumors about me stop.
When I was 15 my father kicked me out of the house. I slept in the streets.
I was sleeping with strangers for sex and money. Sometimes I was so tired so that I was sleeping at a random guy's house and realized while sleeping that I was getting fucked.
When I was 17 years old I was sent to jail for 14 months for being gay. They put me in a cell with killers, rapists,... So I ended up being rapped and physically harassed, even by the prison guards.
When I was 19 I started working in resort hotels as a performer. I had a boyfriend. Then the revolution happened. DASH/ISIS men started to terrorize people. They came to my place. They broke into my house, wearing masks hiding their faces and stole everything. One of them stabbed me. I ended up having 14 stitches. So this time I knew I had to leave Tunisia. I collected whatever I had and looked for a country where I could go without a visa.
Then came the devastating news that I was HIV positive.
I managed to leave Tunisia for Turkey, hoping that it would be a more open country. When I realized it was not that welcoming for Trans I took the risk to travel on a zodiac boat to Greece, thinking that Greece being part of the European Community would be a great country for someone like me. After a year in the Lesbos refugee camp I found housing in Athens thanks to an organization and started to study business and work with organizations.
But actually between the rejection of the many straight arab refugees towards people like me and the racism and transphobia of the local population, I realized that Greece was not the country I was dreaming of. I was even subject of beating. The refugee organization put me with straight refugees even if they know that I would end up being raped. My passport got stolen. My residence paper expired and because of the pandemic it will take months to renew .
I was desperate until I found Charlie, trans activist in Paris who immediately put me in contact with Iman Le Caire and her husband Jean-Manuel, both humanitarian activists for Trans Refugees and who work with Charlie. They told me that they will find a way to get me asylum in France, where I could start a new beautiful life, since as a Tunisian woman I speak French fluently.
As they know I have no money left. I am grateful to them for raising money to help me survive in Athens and pay for what it will take to get me asylum in France.
Thank you all for reading my story and for your generosity.
Cara
Organizer and beneficiary
Iman Le Caire
Organizer
New York, NY
Jean-Manuel Pourquet
Beneficiary