POSITIVE NEWS NEWS FROM OUR SISTERS IN KAKUMA
By Sally Jackson. FiLiA Trustee.
Good news, but still work to do.
It is almost exactly four years since we were introduced to the courageous women stuck in the refugee camp in Kakuma in Kenya. That was shortly after a recent attack where women had been attacked with knives and sexually assaulted. In our naivety we were shocked that the UNHCR, the international organisation whose role it is to support and protect refugees, was ignoring their calls for safety and protection. We soon learned that in a country where homophobia is not only legal, but legally sanctioned, the Kenyan employees of State agencies and International Human Rights organisation are of course a product of their environment. These women had escaped forced marriage, rape, beatings and threats to their lives when it was discovered they were lesbian. Now, when they asked for help from the police, health care agencies and refugees support, they faced the same homophobia they had run from.
Over the past four years, FiLiA supporters have helped us to build and equip a school, and provided essential sanitary wear and medication, food and bedding. When life became too dangerous within the camp due to changes in Kenyan laws on homosexuality, you helped some escape to another country where the chances of them being resettled to a safe country are much improved. For them you have provided tents, food, medication and toilet facilities. As it became too dangerous to remain openly lesbian in the Kakuma camp, you have helped others to be relocated to live in hiding and supported their food, rent and medical needs. We have done all this in sisterhood with lesbians in Europe and the USA, who together have raised and shared the costs to ensure the women have had their basic needs met.
On Monday we were overjoyed to hear that Reginah, who you may remember lost her baby daughter Patricia at 5 months following injuries sustained during a peaceful protest, started her journey to peace and freedom. The picture shows Reginah and her two children on board her flight to Canada, finally able to start a life where she will be accepted for who she is. Sisters in Canada will make her welcome and help her negotiate the system and get her and her children settled. There are times we doubted this would ever happen, but the advocacy, persistence and international sisterhood has paid off. We expect to have similar stories from the other women to share (hopefully) soon.
Thank you all for the letters written, tweets sent, funds donated; it has made a huge difference to the lives of the women. It’s not over yet, until they are all relocated and safe we still need rent, food and medication, so please keep supporting us at Support the Kakuma Campaign ‒ FiLiA As Reginah would say A Luta Continua! But we are nearly there, and seeing Reginah start the next part of her journey gives us all hope, and knowledge that sisterhood is powerful!