Help an LGBTQ Refugee and Her Son Get Started in Canada!

Help an LGBTQ refugee and her son get started in Canada!

We (Anne, Lori, Debbie, and Cabrel) are asking for your financial assistance to help resettle another LGBTQ refugee, M (we are using an initial to hide her identity as she is still in danger), and her baby, who will be arriving in Canada in mid-August. Since summer 2024, the four of us have been working to bring M—who is Cameroonian but fled to Tunisia to seek refugee status—to safety in Canada. And now it is finally happening!

About the fundraising team. We met M shortly before her son was born last summer. We were introduced over What’sApp by Cabrel, also an LGBTQ refugee from Cameroon, who was living with us here in San Francisco and met M through a network of LGBTQ Cameroonians. He was granted refugee status in 2024, and Lori, Anne, and Debbie were part of his sponsor team via Rainbow Railroad, an organization that works with LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers. (In fact, some of you probably donated to his fund. Thank you!) For the last year the four of us have been in close, daily contact with M and financially supported her and her baby in a safe house in Tunis while advocating to get her to Canada (since resettlement of refugees in the United States has all but stopped). We are overjoyed with the news that M’s refugee status has been approved, and she and her baby will be arriving in Canada next week.

How funds will be used: M and her baby will not have a sponsor team, though they will receive a temporary stipend from the Canadian government during their first year. Anne and Lori will fly to Canada to meet them at the airport and help them get settled there, and the four of us are raising money to get M and her baby settled in their new home. The money raised through GoFundMe will be used for necessities as they move forward in the resettlement process, including rent and a security deposit; utilities and cell phone; furniture, crib, and stroller; food; public transportation costs, and clothing for her and the baby. M is a skilled hairdresser, and her hope is to find work in this field and eventually to go to college.

M ’s Story. M has asked us to share her story because she wants the world to know what she and other refugees are going through.

My Survivor's Journey (translated from French)

I was born in Cameroon into a modest family. I was in a romantic relationship with a colonel's daughter, a relationship that dramatically changed my life. My partner's father, upon discovering our relationship, reacted violently because of my social background and our sexual orientation. One day, while we were at her house, he walked in on us having sex. He started beating me savagely, and I had to flee for my life. Because of his influence, he used his resources to look for me. He even found my mother's house, creating a scandal, and threatening to kill me if he found me. To put pressure on my mother, he had my sister imprisoned for two weeks.

My journey took me to Nigeria, then Niger, where I crossed the Sahara to reach Algeria. In Algiers, I was sold to human traffickers and forced into prostitution. The conditions were inhumane: we were regularly raped and beaten. Miraculously, a police raid allowed me to escape to Tunisia. In Tunisia, homeless and destitute, I tried to cross the Mediterranean, but in vain. Living on the streets, I was raped several times and, as a result, became pregnant. The Tunisian police, not respecting my rights as an asylum seeker, incarcerated me without due process. I spent 12 days in a cell in deplorable conditions.

In Tunis, I live in constant fear and insecurity. Discrimination against Black people and the LGBTQ community is omnipresent. Even when I was about to give birth to my son, I had to go to four hospitals before I found doctors who were willing to attend to me. Violence and insults are our daily life. Resources are limited, access to healthcare is difficult, and we are constantly threatened with arrest and violence.

All donations are greatly appreciated. Please help us spread the word.

Thank you from the four of us and from M!

Anne Raeff, Lori Ostlund, Debbie Weissman, & Cabrel Ngounou