The Gorom Pride 10: Help LGBTQ Refugees in East Africa

"Despite the misery, we celebrated Pride Day in the Gorom Refugee Camp."

Abdoul Hafidh Ndaisaba describes 1) The crisis, 2) life in the camp, 3) context about LGBTQ+ culture in African refugee camps, and 4) logistics about how the funds will be distributed.

1. The Crisis

Hello, my name is Abdul Hafidh Ndaisaba, and I am advocating for my fellow transgenders with whom we are together facing a crisis in the Gorom refugee camp of South Sudan.

I am a transgender woman staying in the refugee camp with my fellow ten (10) QUEER and TRANS individuals. We have faced a great deal of homophobia in this environment, including from fellow refugees.

Unfortunately, UNHCR staff, including medical attendants, are homophobic toward us and don’t provide services to us. This has been reported several times to the people responsible, but help has been in vain. Thus, seeking support from fellow LGBTIQ organizations and individual well-wishers to attain medication from private hospitals in the camp has been difficult.

[Kathryn's context: we have several sources who are providing striking photography of the horrific conditions, but also the surviving spirit of Queer people who congregate to have strength in numbers. However, they are known as a queer group, which puts them in the most danger. Gorom camp was designed to host 15,000 people, but now has over 22,000. The transphobia is deadly, and mainstream aid organizations often refuse them, as resources are so limited that only a chosen few get food.]

Additionally, we are suffering from hunger to such a degree that there are going to be deaths before long from malnutrition and starvation. I am asking you to use whatever means you have to provide funds for even the basics of food to keep us alive while we are waiting for resettlement.

Any sum, no matter how small, will be gratefully received and will help keep starvation and all the attendant problems that this brings at bay.

Thus, we are seeking support to overcome scarcity and hunger.

In addition to the problem of hunger, we are also in need of ten (10) shelters, in the form of simple tents, as we always sleep exposed to the elements, experiencing extreme heat and extreme cold, and also dangers of attack from homophobic residents at the camp, as well as from snakes and scorpions.

Please help: this is a crisis of enormous proportions, and no one deserves to perish as a result of the cessation of food rationing by international agencies.

We will be very glad to receive any positive feedback in terms of financial help, advice, and advocacy support!

Many thanks.

2) Life in the Refugee Camp:

Generally, life in the refugee camp is extremely hard for the LGBTQI community due to rampant homophobia within the camp. This is witnessed through daily attacks by homophobic fellow refugees and the co-host community.

LGBTQI refugees live under great fear whereby we're being targeted by the homophobes; this has resulted in severe injuries where these homophobes ambush when armed with machetes. Over time, properties have also been lost.

In addition, sexual harassment has also been witnessed here in the refugee camp against the LGBTQI community. Lesbians on several occasions have been raped not once but twice. Beyond any reasonable doubt, this has made the refugee camp the most hostile land for the LGBTQI community.

Furthermore, the LGBTQI community lives under great suffering due to the fact that 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 harder for the minority group, being marginalized amidst this arid area of the camp. We have faced various attacks from homophobes and also illnesses related to poor standards of living.

Even so, despite all the misery, we try to find some time to kill the stress when celebrating official LGBTIQ days and festivals. Below is when we celebrated Pride Day and also had some couples officially get married while maintaining a low profile.

4. How the funds will be distributed: Kathryn has been helping refugees since March 2024. Ze is a trustworthy person who sends money directly to a network of digital wallets. Ze is in touch with a network of people in both the US and Rwanda, Kenya, and South Sudan. For more about Kathryn, start with zer LinkedIn profile. We will also be posting information about a national science grant - we will know in July. Feel free to connect and ask any questions. We are happy to introduce donors to all the people involved once confidentiality is assured.

Summary:

1. Who you are

Kathryn Born and Queer Refugees in Gorom Camp

2. Where you're from

South Sudan and Colorado, USA

3. Your relationship to the parties you're raising funds for and who will be receiving the funds

Friends of IRL friends

4. How the funds will be delivered

100% directly to contact's digital MTN wallet

5. How the funds will be spent (be specific as possible)

On tents and food.