My name is JAMES CHAKA.

I am a TRANSGENDER WOMAN.

I am an LGBTIQ leader of the RWANDESE people and their representative here in South Sudan, where we have faced a great deal of homophobia in this environment, including from fellow refugees.

Unfortunately, UNHCR staff, including medical attendants, are homophobic to us and don’t provide services to us. This has been reported several times to the people responsible but help has been in vain. Thus, seeking support from fellow LGBTIQ organizations and individual well-wishers to attain medication from private hospitals in the camp has been difficult.

Additionally,we are suffering from hunger to such a degree that there are going to be death before long from malnutrition and starvation.I am asking you to use whatever means you have to provide funds for even the basic of food to keep us alive while we are waiting for resettlement.

Any sum, no matter how small, will be gratefully received and will help keep starvation and all the attendant problems that this bring at bay.

Thus, we are seeking support to overcome scarcity and hunger.

In addition to the problem of hunger, we are also in need of shelter, in the form of simple tents, as we sleep exposed to the elements, experiencing extreme heat and extreme cold, and also dangers of attack from homophobic residents at the camp, as well as from snake's and scorpions.

Please help: this is a crisis or enormous proportions, and no one deserves to perish as a result of the cessation of food rationing by international agencies

We will be very glad to receive any positive feedback in terms of financial help, advice and advocacy support!

Many thanks.

Life at Gorom refugee camp:

Generally life at Gorom refugee camp is extremely hard for the LGBTQI community due to rampant HOMOPHOBIA within the camp. This is witnessed through daily attacks by homophobic fellow refugees and the co-host community.

LGBTQI refugees live under great fear whereby we're being targeted by the homophobes; this has resulted in severe injuries where these homophobes ambush when armed with machetes. Over time, property has been also lost.

In addition, sexual harassment has also been witnessed here at Gorom refugee camp to the LGBTQI community. Lesbians on several occasions have been raped not once but twice. Beyond any reasonable doubt, this has made Gorom the most hostile land for LGBTQI community.

Furthermore, the LGBTQI community lives under great suffering due to the fact they are willing to work to earn a living but fail to get employment opportunities due to their sexual orientation. This has made life so much harder for the minority group, being marginalized amidst this arid area of Gorom. We have faced various attacks from homophobes and also illness related to poor standards of living.

Even so, despite all the misery, we try to find some time to kill the stress when celebrating official LGBTIQ days and festivals. Below is when we celebrated the Pride Day and also had some couples officially get married while maintaining a low profile.

Yours sincerely,

JAMES CHAKA.