Donate to support Usalama House- LGBTQ safe space

For more than a year now, we have been working hard to end homelessness among the LGBT youth in Tanzania and also give the opportunity to build a better future. ; Thanks to our supporters and well-wishers for helping we realize this dream.

Through your support and the community grant this  year we are offering permanent shelter to five LGBT homeless youth, providing meals clothes and medical care and sponsoring  sponsor 8 LGBT youth to go different collages to obtain skills in the following courses:

1. Certificate in Front Office Operations (2 years course)

2. Certificate in Dressmaking and Design (2 years course)

3. Certificate in Hairdressing (9 months course)

The goal of this project is to continue widening the ability to support more LGBT youth on a sustained basis and reduce the number of LGBT youth who live on streets and the involvement in risk behaviors by building them to become good citizens and future leaders.

There is still a need for funding so that we can be able to sponsor 32 LGBT youth in 2016. Kindly continue supporting us.

A storry from Nathan:

“When I was a child my dream was to become a fashion designer but my dream died when I was kicked out of my family and relocated to Dar es Salaam, my life changed  because I had no home no relatives but only a few gay friends who could help me but they also had no money. Later I learned about LGBT Voice went to their office requested to volunteer, that is when things started changing, I’m now enrolled in collage and after 2 years,, my dream will come true.”

It is with our deepest gratitude that we say thank you to all of you who considered supporting our homeless LGBTQ youth. It was through your tireless efforts that you funded our Homeless Shelter for this year. Because of your efforts we did provide nutritious meals, accommodation, school fees, medical care and personal items throughout the year.

Your support enables us to continue our work every day! An amazing job and amazing results! You are an awesome community!

2015 has been a challenging year for the LGBTQ youth in Tanzania and for Usalama Shelter Project because we have experienced   the increase o homelessness among the LGBTQ youth because most parents thought that throwing their children out of their families was the best punishment to offer. Some parents threatened to kill their LGBTQ children and the children decided to run away before they are killed and they ended up on streets where they couldn`t access their basic needs, homelessness among the young LGBTQ in Tanzania continued to be a traumatic experience because those who were kicked out of their families lost everything. They lost their routines, privacy, family, friends, and future. They got into situations where they didn’t know where the next meal would come from, or where they would be the next day.

This year alone the project registered 78 LGBTQ youth who were kicked out their homes and expelled from school because of who they are. Unfortunately were not able to serve all of them due to limited resources.

Through the generosity of our donors the project managed to offer direct services to 48 LGBTQ youth in Tanzania. The services offered include temporary shelter 12, meals 32 and education sponsorship 3. This number is very small compared to the growing number of homeless LGBTQ youth in Tanzania, since our role is to make sure homelessness does not have lasting effects on the physical and mental health of young LGBTQ in Tanzania for many years to come.

 We were also able to provide training on behavioral change to help the youth who were involved in risk behavior such as drinking, smoking using drugs and engaging in sex work or sex trade to survive, and the training did help to reduce the risk for HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections and also reduced a number of drug users. We are still trying to educate the police officers to stop harassment and brutal attack on the youth who live on streets.

Through your support, we are working hard to make sure these youth are off the streets, have a safe place to live, provide medical care, all other personal needs and fund them to go to school so that they can have a bright future.

Usalama House project is excited to bring you a few stories  from our beneficiaries , thanks to our supporters for making it possible for us to support LGBTQ youth who are homeless and hopeless, because of who they are.

1. Here is story from Braison one of the beneficiaries from this project:

I am the fourth born among seven children in our family, while growing up I used to play with girls not boys and all my stuff was for girls, my parents always punished me and never wanted me to behave like a girl. Their hate grew every day but they could not stop me from being Gay, none of them knew or realized that I was gay. In June 2014 I came back from school for short holidays and my elder brother tricked me, then he learned about my sex orientation and told my father. That day my father planned to kill me at night but fortunately my Mother learned about the plan and helped me ran away.

I ran away from home and went to Dar es salaam but had no relative or friend in the City, while on the streets I met a few gay youth who are sex workers and also joined the group but the life was more worse for me, then one of the friends told me about  LGBT Voice Tanzania, I took a step and went to the office, I met some good people and they helped me find accommodation and meals and supported me for 6 months, they then helped me relocate to Arusha where I happily live and attend a vocational training centre, soon I`ll be a professional hair dresser.

1. Here is story from Zamiri the first beneficiary from the sponsorship:

My dream was to become a fashion designer but lost the dream when my parents threw me out of our home, I lived on the streets, spent all my time going to party looking for men and even started using drugs, but one of the staff from LGBT Voice hold my hand and took me to their office offered me with some counseling, and they offered me a home. This was my new beginning as they helped me pursue my dream, I`m now a designer and can meet my daily expenses. I am also helping other few boys follow my steps. Thanks to LGBT Voice, for helping me get here.

1. Here is a story from Morita a beneficiary from the project :

I am very grateful to Usalama House for giving me this opportunity to have a place to live, before coming here I used to sleep in night clubs, and sometimes ask friends to allow me in their homes for some nights but they were not willing to allow me in because they thought I would leave their homes because I had no place to go, it was a very difficult moment for me having no permanent place to live. I have no word to use to thank the founders and leaders of this organization for bringing me here, I can eat good food, sleep well, have a nice bed to sleep and there people I can trust and share my problems. Last week I was sick they took me to a hospital and everything was taken care of, got treated and I`m now fine. I wish there were many places like this so that no youth would suffer, because there are many who need to live like me, Thanks to LGBT Voice.

We continue to make a public appeal for help so that we can be able to raise funds and help these poor youth, we are the only hope for their future. We depend on individual donation as our main source of income to run this project