Help the LGBTQ ️‍community in refugeecamp, Kakuma

Due to personal circumstances this crowdfunding page will stop. If you are in a position with good network and crowdfunding abilities, it would be wonderful to take over this cause and start your own crowdfunding for the LTBTQ+ community in need. Thank you all for donating and helping the lives of people in need a little. I hope to be able to do more in the future.

Kind regards, Naomi

*Today some very sad news. One person in the camp suffered a major homophobic attack and is hopspitalized and is in urgent need for medical attention. If you can miss a small or large amount please donate*

Video about building a new toilet

https://youtube.com/shorts/2WyDSRlNugs?feature=share

Who are we?

My name is Shafic, and I am a gay Ugandan refugee, currently living at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana County, northern Kenya. I represent a group of LGBTQ persons in Kakuma Refugees camp, who fled Uganda hoping for the best but we are discriminated against by the Kenyan authorities, police and we are living a messed up life.

For those who don't know, Kakuma is a town in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp. The area has always been full of problems: dust storms, high temperatures, poisonous spiders, snakes, and scorpions, outbreaks of malaria, cholera, and other hardships. The average daytime temperature is 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), as well.

Insecurity, hunger and health problems

We suffer insecurity, hunger and health issues. The WFO – World Food Organisation – gives us monthly rations, but these are not enough, as grateful as we are for the food that is issued. The authorities in Kenya do little to help: the Kenya police are notoriously brutal and corrupt. We have the feeling that UNHCR turns a blind eye to the situation, and our reports of violence to our persons are usually ignored. We have voluntary advocates writing to UNHCR in Geneva, Kakuma and Nairob , but their emails are rarely answered.

We are also caught in a complicated bureaucratic network that is not freely forthcoming with help. It is often difficult to contact those who are our case workers, and we wait months and months between interviews, and some of us have been here for years.

We plea for moral and financial support for safety and protection because we deserve our rights and freedom. LGBTQ+ refugees are mistreated and they live their lives in fear, on top of continued Homophobia and Transphobia.

Use of funds

Funds will help improve shelters. Part of the funds will be for erecting fences as well. Often, queer refugees are assaulted daily, since they are in open spaces without fences. Funds will be also used for procuring food, beddings and medication. In most Refugees Clinics, LGBTQI refugees are mistreated. We also plan to use the funds to support the ecological and environmental needs of the camp, such as fresh water (available with a few water pumps), a few livestock and chicken and seeds so they can obtain sustainable and independent nutrition. plan to use the funds to support the ecological and environmental needs of the camp, such as fresh water (available with a few water pumps), a few livestock and chicken and seeds so they can obtain sustainable and independent nutrition.

We ask for your support and thank you in advance for your financial donations. You may donate as little as a $1 or greater. Our wish goal is US$5000.

Backround

The broad picture for gay people in most of Africa is a grim one, with homophobia frequently starting in the family home; it is not unusual for parents to reject their gay children, even to the extent of killing them, or hiring contract killers. The only way to survive is to flee from countries such as Uganda, where I come from, or the French-speaking so-called Great Lakes countries: Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo. We come to Kenya, for that is where the UNHCR is based in East Africa, seeking resettlement on third countries that do not criminalise homosexuality, and for many it is out of the frying pan and into the fire, exchanging one terrible situation for another. If you are a victim of a brutal attack, as many of us have been, including my life-partner, who suffered slashes with panga knives, then nowhere can be less dangerous than elsewhere.

We need the moral support of people outside, above all in parts of the world where gay people are free to express themselves. That is why I am presenting this to you, in the hope that you will use your voices to make known to a wider public what we go through on a daily basis.

We hope you will help us raise the money so on the one hand we can better our life circumstances in Kakuma and on the other hand we can save enough so we will be able to built a better future in another country that welcomes diversity.

Thank you for your support and attention!

Page of Shafic visit for more backround stories

Love+solidarity ❤️️‍️‍⚧️