In weeks since President Trump has signed an executive order that dismantled the US International Development Agency, Andrea Minaj Casablanc’s phone has been overwhelmed by desperate pleas for help.
Advisor working with non -profit organizations dealing with members Ugandana LGBTQ populationShe compared the urgent demands of people seeking medicines for HIV, therapeutic session and shelter after Mr. Trump’s executive order. Mrs. Casablanca answered these calls as she caught herself in her own crisis: discharged from a job funded by USAID
“Our whole world is facing upside down,” said Mrs. Casablanca, a 25-year-old transgender woman, recently in Kampali, the capital in Kampali. “Everyone is in fear of the future.”
LGBTQ people in Uganda have suffered intensity in this conservative East African nation in recent years. President of Yoweri Musevee signed Law 2023 Calls to Lifetime Prison For all who deal with same -sex relations in Uganda and until the decade in prison for all who try it.
Now, they say activists, a reduction of USAIDs have led them to even greater risk, with shelters under -financed, hundreds of individuals of the unemployed and much more confrontation with discrimination and violence. Vital medical material remains scarce, while members of the LGBTQ group are increasingly reporting to feel depressed or suicidal.
The law also enables the death penalty for all convicted for the “exacerbated homosexuality”, a great expression defined as works of same -sex relationships with minors or disabled people. Mr. Musevene and his government claimed that homosexuality is a Western phenomenon and that the law protects children and defends the holiness of the family.
“This is a showdown,” said Richard Lusimbo, founder and general director of the Consortium Key Population Consortium, a non -profit organization promoting LGBTQ rights and health.
“When these programs have disappeared, I worry that our communities will be pushed into clutter and inability,” he added. “It’s hearty.”
Muhoosis of KanerugabaSon of Mr Museveni and Chief of the Uganda Army, contracted President Trump to renew help those infected with HIV, adding: “Our people will be grateful.”
United States secure More than $ 970 million a year in development, as well as humanitarian and security assistance to Uganda. In 2023, about $ 440 million was spent on health programs, followed by ambulance, agriculture and educational services, According to the US Government data.
For years, the United States has supported the LGBTQ groups in Uganda through initiatives financed by USAID, offering HIV treatment, legal training and activism resources. Previous US government too convicted Violations of human rights against gay of the Ugandans, imposing trade and travel limits in response.
Just a few days after Mr. Trump assumed his duty in January, his administration announced that it was stopping all the side of help while spending the 90-day consumption audit. State Secretary Marco Rubio issued a renunciation to Continue to finance Lifesasing drugs and medical services, including for HIV care and treatment tuberculosis.
But The exemption is off Programs that have promoted diversity, equality and inclusion. This meant that LGBTQ people could not receive medication to protect them from HIV infections. Several Ugandic gay groups said that during the audit they had been informed that their projects had been permanently abolished because they promoted diversity, equality and inclusion.
At the end of February, Trump’s administration announced that she had completed an overview of all American foreign assistance and that she was a reduction of 90 percent USAID programs including those rescue medication.
Fast loss of help from the United States has left many gay ugandance terrified. “It’s like running from one fire to another fire,” said AGY HRD, Executive Director of Africa Queer Network, who works on LGBTQ rights in more than a dozen African countries.
Mrs. HRD Anti-homosexuality law In Uganda, she said she had been attacked and beaten in the country last year. With sudden reduction in funds, it is worried that many homosexuals, especially in rural areas, will become ill or encountered violence and have no time to contact safety or support.
“I haven’t slept well for weeks,” she said. “There’s a big battle ahead of us.”
An informal research of 127 non-profit organizations dealing with LGBTQ problems and other risk groups conducted by the Key Key Population Consortium, Mr. Lusimbo organization, found that 97 percent lost almost all of their budgets as a result of a reduction in USAIDs. Mr. Lusimbo said he had to release most of his staff in the last month.
The organizations began to distribute what they were left and relying on volunteers to maintain basic services, such as finding shelters or delivery of a test for testing. Brant Luswata, Executive Director of Icebreakers Ugande, Gay Rights Organizations, said that, as services were eliminated, his group were asked to return the login cabinets and chairs purchased by US tax dollars.
Activists said some LGBTQ clinics were now charging services that were previously free, such as HIV testing. Mental health services are completely reduced or reduced, they said. There are also fears that sudden suspension of help will cancel the years of progress in teaching ugandans about safe sex or the exit of people living with HIV to life dangerous infections due to impaired immunity.
“Infections have not passed a break just because there is a 90-day examination,” said Mr. Lusimbo. “We live in a global village,” he added. “Health is in danger.”
Conditions for LGBTQ are so dangerous that shelters often move locations often either move individuals to avoid personal attacks or attacks from power. Now some of these shelters are beginning to close.
Since 2020, approximately three dozen shelters in secret locations across Uganda have protected thousands of gay people from homelessness and violence, according to John Grace, a consortium coordinator for the shelter of the Uganda minority.
The shelters relied on the mediators receiving US funding, including USAID and centers for the control and prevention of the disease. But due to the gradual reduction of financing and changing policies under Trump’s administration, at least a dozen shelters are now closed, MX said. Grace, which is non -bidding.
Those who are left without staff and overcrowded and began to turn people away, they said.
“It’s a total mess,” Mx said. Grace, 32, whose family kicked them out after they came out a few years ago as a non -bid. “These shelters are a rescue line for so many people, and now they are struggling to survive.”
For Mrs. Casablanca, an advisor, a ruthless course of phone calls does not show signs of indulgence. Despite not receiving her $ 40 a month’s salary funded by USAID, she decided to continue working as a volunteer.
Through Kampal and other cities of Uganda, she said, LGBTQ people reach out, worried about where they can get medicines, condoms, lubricants and tests. Some call in tears, sharing their struggles with fear and isolation, she said. Many, like her, also take care of where their next salary will come from or to pay the rent.
In order to put an end to the end, she said, she took the job as a decorator of fun. “We have to survive in this darkness,” she said.
