Visual Echoes for Human Rights Advocacy (VEHRA)

COVID-19 Rapid Response Project

Location: Uganda (Kampala)

Uganda has extended the national wide lockdown as a way of preventing the spread of COVID-19 and as a result, the LGBTIQ community being one of the minority groups in the country has been greatly affected by this extended lockdown as members cannot access food, medical care and personal protection equipment to enable them survive the negative consequences of COVID-19. Furthermore, many LGBTIQ youth who have been doing some small jobs and businesses have been forced out of employment; they have not been able to pay their rent fees close to three months now. Currently, six of our members in Kampala and Wakiso Districts have been issued eviction letters to leave and find accommodation in other places which is practically impossible as they don’t have any incomes to pay for their relocation.

Therefore, The COVID-19 Rapid Response Project of VEHRA is designed to support LGBTIQ youths affected and those that are living with HIV and AIDS as well other LGBTIQ community members that have been affected severely by the COVID -19 pandemic in the rural and Peri-Urban districts of Kampala, Mukono, Buikwe and Wakiso districts. The project is being conducted in very direct practical ways; buying food, providing personal protection equipment, enabling health workers to support HIV positive members to ensure drug adherence, preventing evictions by assisting temporarily with rent money, buying airtime to keep members in communication via mobile phone. We aim to address these immediate problems until lockdown is eased and life begins to get back to some kind of normality.

The project is being led by Steven Muleme the executive director of VEHRA plus a few staff members. We are however facing a challenge of finding funding to mitigate the challenges identified above and this is because a few funding opportunities we've identified tend out to be very competitive. However, with some support from ALL OUT, we managed to reach out to 75 LGBT members with some food relief and medical emergencies to only 4 individuals.

Support

Our project requires a total of $14,286 USD to be able to support a total number of 500 LGBTQ members at the grassroots level to be supported with food relief, contribution on rent to avoid evictions, ARVs, malaria treatment, protective gears such as sanitizers, face masks, and communication. We have continued to apply for the available resources to fundraise for the project. Unfortunately, the few available resources are very competitive and so we haven't been lucky enough to reach our goal.

Other needs: Volunteers, Access to information, Space for online convenings (e.g. GoToMeeting)

See more: https://www.facebook.com/visualechoesug/

For more information contact covid19@unmgcy.org