LBQ communities in Uganda use flexible funding to create spaces for self- and collective care

Life is rarely straightforward for queer feminists in Uganda and the past few years have seen more dramatic challenges emerge. But with flexible funding from Womankind, this community has been able to truly focus on taking care of themselves and each other. 

‘It was the fulfilment of a lifelong dream,’ says Gloriah Mutyaba, programme director of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), speaking about the Ugandan Lesbian Forum (UGALEF) in 2021, which she helped to curate. 

‘It was a beautiful event. Three days of sharing and a space where LBQ womxn, activists and leaders co-created an innovative space for soul restoration, healing, wellbeing for themselves, their organisations and the movement, to heal, love and laugh together.  

‘We shared our journeys of wellness, laughed together and found out what support and healing is needed at an organisational and individual level. Women loved the space.’ 

‘I felt safe, comfortable and alive at UGALEF. The space brought each person’s individual struggles, so we could see we are not struggling alone,’ adds Ruth Amor from FARUG, the first and longest-serving LBQ rights organisation in Uganda. 

Inspiring experiences in a tense environment 

Gloriah and Amor were sharing their frank and inspiring experiences at a recent online event organised by Womankind Worldwide and FARUG: Queer feminist organising in Uganda – safe spaces and self-care.  

The event covered included self- and collective care, the importance of flexible funding and the major impact of COVID-19, new legislation and political events on LBQ communities in Uganda. 

Uganda is well-known as a repressive and dangerous environment for sexual minorities, including the LBQ community.  

The country’s Sexual Offences Bill (SOB) – passed in May 2021, although subsequently rejected and returned to parliament by President Yoweri Museveni months later – further criminalises consensual sex acts and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and sex workers. 

Gloriah describes how FARUG and ally organisations in the feminist movement sought to engage women parliamentarians on how the SOB would affect the lives of ordinary Ugandans and the work of organisations like FARUG. 

‘We invited the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) to have a conversation, to share our lived experiences and explain how problematic the bill would be,’ Gloriah says. 

‘Halfway through, one MP stood up and started praying for us, telling us to repent, that we don’t deserve to live in this country, that we are evil, beasts and a shame to Womankind. They were “laying hands” on queer women. It was very annoying.’ 

Tensions for LBQ communities and sexual minorities in Uganda continue unabated, exemplified by the closure of the leading organisation SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda) this August. Religious fundamentalists repeatedly target LGBTQI+ people, while workplaces can often be toxic environments for sexual minorities, with bullying and sexual harrassment rife. 

COVID’s disproportionate impact on LBQ organisations

Gloriah believes the FARUG offices are being watched and staff are being stalked and having their emails hacked. Threats have been received by phone and on social media. 

‘They say they know what we are doing, it’s not right and our days are numbered. It’s a very tense and scary time for us and we have become very paranoid,’ Gloriah says.

The COVID-19 pandemic also had a different and disproportionate effect on queer women. While lots of funds were available to support activities for key populations – access to vaccines, personal protective equipment and home-working support – LBQ organisations seemed to miss out. 

‘We were not able to do as much work as we would have wanted,’ adds Gloriah. ‘So many queer organisations who work with women deeply felt the impact of COVID. It was important for us to convene queer women to share and heal and talk about how the pandemic affected them on an individual and institutional level.’ 

A vital space for LBQ womxn, activists and leaders

In 2021, Womankind supported FARUG with flexible funding, money made available for feminist organisations to pursue their own agenda, giving them the freedom to be adaptive to challenging contexts. The Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA) also provided support.  

This enabled FARUG to organise the second ever UGALEF with the theme ‘collective healing, love and care’, providing a vital space for LBQ womxn, activists and leaders to politicise how they treat themselves, how they treat each other, how they move through, manage and resolve conflict and how to pick themselves up in the pandemic.  

‘Womankind asked us what we needed funding for – they offered financial and technical support. Self-care and wellbeing is a priority for us so we asked them to fund that,’ Gloriah adds. 

‘Flexible funding enables you to do things that typically funders will not support. Womankind’s investment has made it easy for us to talk, provide self-care to staff, energise them, which enables them to work better and also contributes to the bigger picture of dismantling the patriarchy.

‘The two UGALEFS are testament to how flexible funding can work. We would like to do this annually to allow more women to heal and prioritise self-care.’

Transforming the narrative around self-care

Gloriah explains: ‘Self-care is about caring for ourselves as a responsibility we have to the movement, not as a luxury but a political act. We live in a society where women are expected to look after everyone else. We spend more time taking care of others instead of ourselves. This leads to stress and health problems. We need to transform the narrative that makes women feel guilty for taking care of themselves. 

‘Self-care is about taking time to preserve and protect ourselves. We carry a lot because of the kinds of work we do. We feel the realities and pain of the situations and because of that you can end up breaking down.  

‘We experience or witness violence. The impact of that is long-term. It’s not something you can easily let go and forget. You end up doing much more than you should and you can end up burning out. We need to be intentional about our wellness  

‘Taking in and acknowledging our experiences frees us from oppression, directs us towards healing, reminds us of our self-worth and that we deserve love and care.’