Category Archives: Updates

This is “ViW” – his picture was altered by Friends Ugandan Safe Transport to protect his identity.

Am 25yrs young and I can say am a refugee in my own country.

Ever since I was outted as a gay man I haven’t had any kind of peace, living in hiding and constant fear of being lynched since most of my countrymen believe homosexuality is evil, a curse and dangerous.

In my country, due to primitiveness and imported homophobia it is not a safe place for an exposed gay man. Chances are high that you are likely to be killed by your own mother because of your sexuality. The only family one has here is a very gay person or a straight ally. There is nothing like people will mind their own business when it comes to homosexuality, people will mind you and the only way they want to deal with their own fears is by killing you.

We are left with no option but to flee Uganda to go and seek refuge in a less homophobic country.

Where we are hiding its not safe. Anytime anything can happen.

Am appealing to anybody who comes across this message to find it in his or her heart to help us flee Uganda.

Blessings
ViW
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This is “ChaL” – his picture was altered by Friends Ugandan Safe Transport to protect his identity.

The Kill Gay Law (Anti – Homosexuality Bill) here in Uganda was grounded by the Uganda Constitutional Court but it wasn’t grounded in the hearts and minds of many Ugandan Citizens.

Let me tell you something, there isn’t so much rule of law in Uganda after all. You will be surprised to learn that very few cases of abuse, death, attacks and hate against LGBTq make it to the media.

There is a lot of negative reporting when a case makes it to the press. Still be reminded that only cases from urban centers can get to any form of news reporting. It’s clear and a honest mark out that there is a lot of state sponsored homophobia in Uganda.

There is a lot of negative reporting when a case makes it to the press. Still be reminded that only cases from urban centers can get to any form of news reporting. It’s clear and a honest mark out that there is a lot of state sponsored homophobia in Uganda.

Not long ago it was known all over the University that am gay and am wanted by the police.

I just want to get out of here. Am broke and helpless I pray that this letter gets out there and somebody knows what’s happening so they can contribute so that I may flee Uganda.

I just need help.

ChaL

[fruitful_sep]

Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund needs your help to fund the safe transport of ViW and ChaL and many other passengers in hiding out of Uganda.

Right now, the Ugandan conductors owe a debt of $10,472.00 to transporters for getting people out of Uganda in emergency situations. This debt must be repaid so they can continue their work.

One of our Meeting’s members is owed $4439.00 which was loaned in three separate situations when there were emergency situations. And our FUST project owes a debt to our Meeting of another $337.90.

They are all emergency situations – but some are far more urgent and dangerous than others and so debts have grown – but people’s lives have been saved!

As of tonight, New Year’s Eve – 12/31/2016, FUST has supported the Ugandan conductors to help 1,855 individuals escape from Uganda: 1,841 LGBTQ adults, six straight allies, and eight children.

We can’t do it without you.
Please make an end of year donation — or a new year donation as soon as possible, and share this with others.

You can donate online here:

Or mail us a check. More info on donations here.

Thank you,
Gabi Clayton
for Olympia Friends Meeting’s Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund

by “Conductor #1”

We know for a fact that Christian teachings compel humanity to be kind to one another through unconditional love; however, there is a paradigm shift in this doctrine on the part of the Catholic Church in Uganda which is apparently on a deliberate move to make life difficult or next to impossible for all who are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

There has been an upsurge in the number of gay men dismissed from seminaries. Recently 11 seminarians were dismissed from a seminary because they are gay for fear that they would “contaminate” others. However, what is surprising is that the dismissals were not formal by way of a letter. The victims say that the institution does not want to endanger its reputation and attract “noise” from activists by issuing dismissal letters, so they keep it as silent as possible as the victims suffer the humiliation and mental anguish of cutting their learning short.

One expelled seminarian tells of draconian rules that infringe on the liberties of the students. There is a rule that there is no close friendship allowed among seminarians. Lights are not switched off the entire night and, of course, there is no sharing of beds.

A number of students have been expelled from seminaries on the pretext that they were closely relating to one another. The administrators conducted investigations and found that the students engaged in ”unholy friendships”.

Eleven seminarians contacted me and with the help of the Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund I was able to get them out of Uganda, where they were then helped to countries of final destination all over the world.

The temporary accommodations for the victims as they await evacuation are always in shared double rooms that have very minimum amenities. It is a challenge to try to ensure the neighborhood doesn’t become suspicious while they await the chance to leave. On a number of occasions we have had to relocate as pressure mounts from the local community who view new residents with suspicion.

The movement of the seminarians has been done in batches as the funds from our supporters across the globe warrant. I am in direct contact with the folks at Friends Ugandan Safe Transport who coordinate the fundraising, but I decide the order in which folks are able to leave. As we speak now [when he wrote this in December] 10 have already been moved out of the country, and preparing to move to their final destinations.

Recently, I have also received nine women from a Catholic Church-founded college in western Uganda. The women, some of whom were in their final year of diploma study, were dismissed because the college administration investigated and found out that they engaged in “unnatural love”.

The fate of the women was so terrifying that they were not even able to retrieve their personal belongings. Unlike at the seminary where the dismissal process is done discreetly, at the college, it was done with the full knowledge of the entire college community. This attracted rage from other students who attempted an attack on the women. The women were saved by a passenger van driver who stopped at the signal of three girls by the roadside. The three had escaped a mob that was gradually building up. The mob was so angry that it became difficult to even discern what they were exactly shouting, except it was clear that they were to be attacked and beaten. No sooner had the three girls reached the passenger van terminal than their six colleagues joined them. It was then time for the women to plan very fast what their next move would be.

Staying in the college vicinity overnight was out of the question. The women could not make it to Kampala in one go and had to spend two nights in a town called Masaka.

It was while at Masaka that one of the women contacted her peer who had fled last year. All the women belonged to the Q-Hearts group whose membership of lesbian and bisexual women is widespread across the country in colleges and universities. The response from the former beneficiary of the evacuation is what eventually helped them contact me. They are now [in December] in hiding in two separate locations, awaiting the means to leave Uganda, and get on with their lives. Life in Uganda is now intolerable with their very lives at risk.

The women that have moved on praise the initiative of the Friends Ugandan Safe Transport who voluntarily raise funds from compassionate and kind-hearted people to support victims move to a safe country.

January 10, 2016 update: Conductor #1 now has 18 LGBT passengers with another 4 possibly joining them in hiding. They are waiting for funds from us to transport each person out of Uganda. It costs him $185 to get each person out of Uganda.

  A message on 05/04/15 from a Ugandan leader/conductor:

Believe me you, with or without a working anti-gay law Uganda isn’t home to the gays. The locals take the law in their own hands to ensure that no known Ugandan is alive or living in peace. 

Many Ugandans think that if you are gay, you must be mental disturbed, evil, living with HIV/AIDS, a monster or a born criminal. The Ugandan government has done nothing to change the minds of people towards the gays. No wonder that several times when the gays are attacked, the law never takes its course. The gays have nowhere to run to in Uganda and all they can do is to flee the unforgiving treatment in Uganda.  

If you are gay and open within Uganda, you must be living in the city, having enough security, well connected locally and internationally, traveled and exposed, protected and well-off. That way, you won’t be attacked because the Ugandan government knows that if you are attacked the International community will pass the blame onto the Ugandan government for failure to protect you but even still, you must know where to hang or live. Still you are not free, you can’t walk the streets freely or even getting a rental can be so hard. Uganda isn’t welcoming or a home to the gays. 

It’s even so worse for our trans-brothers and sisters, a little mistake can expose them. Many trans people are living in hiding, can’t be free and every day they are at risk of being exposed, attacked and even killed. They live a life of total lack of access to opportunities.

That’s why when we opened our doors to help more transgenders flee, the number has been overwhelming. We have been having 38 transgenders on the waiting list in one month another 17 has begged and begged us to help them flee so they can start another life in another country.

We have 31 trans men and 24 trans women. It’s upon this background that am appealing to you to help us help our trans brothers and sisters flee.

Best regards  
H

A 05-12-15 Update:

After they were in hiding for well over a month and the situation was getting more and more critical for them, a transporter agreed to allow this conductor a short-term debt in order to move these 55 transgender people across a border to another country where they would be aided in finding new home countries to begin new lives.  So this conductor group in Uganda now owes the transporter $52 x 55 = $2,860.00, and there was already a debt of $1359.30 to him for others transported in emergencies. So they need us to raise $4,219.30 to pay off their debt.

Another conductor we work with – in another part of Uganda – has had 16 lesbian nursing students in hiding, and we are sending money to transport 4 of them today, leaving 12. So we need to raise $2,220.00 to transport them out of Uganda.

Please help!

Make a donation (CLICK HERE) to help us raise this current need of $6,439.30, and please spread the word about this important work!

As you may have noticed, we changed our name to Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund. And in just over a year we have been in existence we have funded the cost of transporting 1065 people out of Uganda. Please support us to do more. The need is great.

Thank you!