Ugandan CSO calls on America, Canada, Australia, European Union to Expedite Process For Resettling Transgender Refugees

The UDHR is a standard document, which is guiding nations on how to treat all humans with dignity. There are historical and social causes that led to the drafting of that erstwhile document. The bottom line was to institute structures through which human dignity should be promoted. Let us veer toward the Transgender refugee plight in a kenyan camp. 

Transgender Persons are like any other population groups and deserve to be extended all the dignity one can muster. They are humans and if abused, it is an abuse to the entire humanity. It is this premise that prompted me to write this article.

I know almost all of the Transgender persons I am writing about in this article. I mobilized them while they were in Nairobi and trained them to form a support organization. This was also a collective voice through which their needs were channeled.  They came up with a Facebook account: TOM Facebook Account and a blog site which has different articles showcasing their experiences: Transgender Refugee Experiences in Kenya 2016-2017. We were able to work effectively and cohesively in the hope that their process would not be delayed and they would be resettled within say a year of two at most.

The circumstances keeping the resettlement process move at the pace it is moving, have consequences. One such consequence is the lack of communication on what many consider small issues. It is these small issues, such as poisonous critters creeping up and into people's beds; and absence of leaders to talk to about day to day issues that compound into vitriol if unchecked. Lack of communication affects the general psyche and it destroys proper working relations between handlers and the handled. There is need to come up with, say,  Scorpion prevention and extermination committees. Try it!

It is my hope that writing this article will add to the many other articles calling on all countries that play a hosting role to please provide expedient services and receive these refugees whose only rehabilitation will be when they are resettled. The UNHCR is the best refugee reception facility, but transgender refugees still face hardships despite promises of safe relocation.

Nakawunde Ben and Kabanda Trevor have this to say:

"TERRIBLE SITUATION WE TRANSGENDER WE IN

It is always our prayer that we are not judged by the incidental orientation of our sexuality but by the content of our character if so need be, but it is evident that we are left with a few if any that do understand we are human beings like others. It is painful that they choose to cripple the fact that all people are created equal regardless.

In the process of gaining our rightful place of justice we choose to be calm and it is clearly outward how we are trying best to survive in the midst of a vast ocean filled with vicious transphobes, homophobes and Serophobes.

They came up with conversional therapies, having failed with it they come up with a version of beating the transgender out of us ,that is; police brutality and threatening to send us back to the cradle of persecution which exudes a clear dearth of freedom.

One should be mindful of this marginalised soul exposed to all sorts of vulnerabilities ; food, health and life threatening etc. Think of a transgender who dares never to get back in the closet and they choose to just enjoy the only freedom they have left, the inalienable right to something innate, a right to our sexuality and we choose to do this hold in the manacles of hatred and rejection thusly gender dysphoria and self pity.

We have for long been forced to purchase the confidence of safety from the UNHCR but it is broad evident the guarantee seems to have expired. For all the incidences that have eventuated, we do have unimaginable fears that erelong something beyond cyclopean is yet to happen and it is our deepest worry that little has been done if any, to terminate the life threatening insecurities. We believe it is fatal to overlook the urgency there is at the moment."

Please come to the aid of the refugees. Expedite resettlement processes so that they can begin to shed the traumas and be guided along the journey of restorative quality living.

Sleep deprived, cold, desperate but hopeful are Nakawunde Ben With Henry Mukasa in the background. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Prayer With Hope. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Imagine this what we go through all night when the rains come! Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

The rains sleeping on our floor so we resort to standing up all night. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

The rains displaced us. The elephant in the room. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Resorting to protest advocacy when other means fail. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Resorting to protest advocacy when other means fail. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Resorting to protest advocacy when other means fail. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Resorting to protest advocacy when other means fail. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

No rains but scared of creeping snakes and poisonous scorpions. Source: Nakawunde Ben

When food runs out yet many are still hungry. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

Scorpions to watch out for. Courtesy of Nakawunde Ben's Facebook Account

An all night vigil until the river recedes away. Source Nakawunde Ben

The sun comes out and there is hope to sleep for a few hours before it become scalding hot. Source Nakawunde Ben.

Community meals. Source Nakawunde Ben

A centipede. Source Nakawunde Ben

Lining up for food. Source Nakawunde Ben

Snake. Source Nakawunde Ben

A scorpion. Source: Nakawunde Ben