Let 2023 be the year of PRIDE IN UGANDA!

Our 2023 Dream - Let this be the year of PRIDE IN UGANDA!

Welcome to our call out to the International LGBTQIA+ community and friends to support our pioneering and vital queer sanctuary.

'Uganda LGBT rights: Government shuts down key advocacy group’ BBC News, August 2022.

Over the last six months the Ugandan Government has increased their raids on LGBTQIA+ rights groups. Sexual minorities face widespread persecution in Uganda, where anti-gay and transphobic views are common. Gay relationships are illegal in Uganda, where they can be punished up to life in prison for committing "unnatural offences."

So please support this international call-out to support one of the last remaining queer healing sanctuaries.

‘FAMACE took me in when I was homeless, fed me daily, provided wifi, helped me get jobs online and has become the family I never had’ - Kendricks, currently living in the space.

WHAT

FAMACE is an acronym for Farming, Art, Mental Health Advocacy, Collaboration, and Ethical human-centred design. Since it started operating in September 2021, the FAMACE healing studio supports up to 10 queer people at a time each month who are dealing with trauma and shock after experiencing homophobia, transphobia, and alienation from their families and/or communities. This home is a place where queer people come to hold space —friends and community members can be sure they have a place to stay or simply talk things through any time and be welcome.

HOW

It’s always been clear for queer people in Uganda that we need each other. The friends who are the only people you can inform of a budding new relationship; the same ones who’ll help carry your stuff after the breakup. No questions asked. The day your landlord finds out about you and evicts you, they are the ones you stay with. In a moment like that, you will need a place to stay and with born families rejecting us, there's no place else to fall back on but the community. This became even clearer during the COVID-19 pandemic and that started the journey for FAMACE.

WHY

Having worked as a paralegal on various sexual minorities’ cases, the founder saw first-hand the gaps that the criminal justice system exposed queer people to and the aftermath of these interactions and the toll they had not only on mental health but on livelihoods as well. The consequences were severe: as if losing familial and community support were not bad enough, being outed also means that one is left without options for work. Many have resorted to survival sex work while substance abuse is not at all uncommon. How could the disenfranchised and marginalized find restoration, a sense of purpose and an income, all with a sense of dignity? FAMACE, he thought. FAMACE. A year later, FAMACE finds itself lacking in resources and seeking help to continue the fighting.

HOW YOUR SUPPORT WILL HELP

Your donation to FAMACE will go towards 1 year of operational and overhead costs that include rent and start-up kits for people living in the space.

‘FAMACE took me in when I was homeless, fed me daily, provided wifi, helped me get jobs online and has become the family I never had’ - Kendricks, currently living in the space.

‘If it wasn’t for FAMACE I wouldn’t be here, they are like family to me and helped me build connections with other people’ - Poppy, previously lived in the space

‘Following a raid that happened at the Rellatopia / Rella premises in May 2022.

FAMACE provided a safe and secure home for our previous residents. The chance to stay at the FAMACE home became a real highlight of what life has in store for them!’ - Joan Amek, Rella Women’s Foundation

GOAL: £5000