We are hoping to hold Kenya's 1st Pride Festival. 

13 local led grassroots organizations are coming together to ensure that we actualize this. 

The donations raised will be sent to the bank account of Usikimye organization and will be managed by the committee. 

We also accept Gift Cards through CAF America where Usikimye is a certified as a charity. You will get a tax certificate if you donate through CAF. Below is our verification badge as well. 

https://validation.cafamerica.org/4bb8b048-78a3-4162-80eb-5fe8d01ae7bf

For further details on this, email: stellakhachina@usikimye.org

THIS WILL BE A WEEK OF LOVE and RADICAL UNAPOLOGETIC QUEER JOY, WHICH WE HAVE BEEN DENIED FOR SO LONG. We need a break and deserve to join the world in celebrating a month that means everything to us.

Kenya has a substantial number of LGBTQIA+ community members and very little in the way of places to go where they can be open without fear of prejudice or harm.

Having a place to go to socialize and connect with others on such an important month for us is vitally important to our community, particularly young people who may feel the effects of social isolation and fear of prejudice much more profoundly. 

This festival will celebrate, support and recognize each other as members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

This year, in the last 3 months, LGBTQIA+ community members have suffered immense loss, violence and erasure. 

During the festival, we will be taking a moment of silence for the members we have lost this year through brutal targeted rape and murder. We will celebrate their lives too. 

We are coming together to hold a full day of the following inclusive activities thatare dependant on how much we raise:

1. Mental Health Awareness Activities
2. Free HIV/STIs Testing and awareness campaign 
3. Films by different queer film houses
4. Drag Show and ball 
5. Fashion show
6. Board and Field Games - As a means to catharsis, bonding, networking and interacting.
7. Essential response Service Providers booths for information and awareness - Resource Booth such as GBV service providers, safe houses service providers, medical providers
8. Barter Trading - Community members will come together to exchange items that have significance to them.
9. Performance by LGBTQIA+ artists including:
   1. Spoken Word artists
   2. Musicians
   3. Dancers
10. Music by the DJs
11. Body Art
12. Vending and career booths- We will give the LGBTQIA+ community space to sell and buy from one another. This will also set young queers with resources for career development.
13. Self defense training and conversations around safeguarding and security by security firms, safe guarding organizations.

These activities are performed by members of the LGBTQIA+ community and the Pride Festival will be attended by the LGBTQIA+ community members only.

This festival aims to promote a sense of belonging for the LGBTQIA+ community.

We aim to use these activities to amplify the fact that we are working on ensuring that we promote equality, diversity and inclusion and provide support guidance and advice to the Kenyan LGBTQ+ population and to reach out to those who feel marginalized or isolated by society or who have been rejected by their loved ones. 

With a particular focus on physical and mental wellbeing we intend to provide inclusive and safe spaces to allow people to be themselves.

These are our needs:

1. Security - We need to be big on security details for each of the activities we conduct during Pride Week. Especially due to the deaths and attacks that we have faced in the last year. In 2019, The Kenyan High Court failed to protect the human rights of all its citizens by failing to repeal section 162 of the penal code that criminalizes consensual sexual conduct between two adults of the same sex. Such measures have always placed us in a place in unsafe situations, prejudice and violence. 
2. Venue - We need various different safe locations for each dedicated activity and that will cost us an arm and a leg as very few locations are queer friendly with top notch measures to ensure our safety. We are deserving of safe spaces, and in as much as Kenyan organizations are existing, we cannot fund for the spaces on our own without your support.
3. Lights, Sound system and Booth for activities so that we are able to fully engage with each other
4. Seats - We are having a full day activity and we definitely need to get a rest or two in  between the intense activities we have planed :)
5. Tents - We love the rains but sometimes some people are having the kind of days where they need a break from getting wet.
6. Transport- A lot of queer people that gather, some from informal settlements as we aim at encouraging those in attendance to be in a space where they belong, even just for a week. Hence, we aim to make sure that at the end of the activities, we are able to take people back home especially in hotspot areas to guarantee our own safety. We have 6 major identified areas where most members of the LGBTQIA+ community majorly stay and we aim to ensure that we have set aside transport allowances for them. 
7. Décor - Décor is one of the ways that we can express ourselves! It is very vital for Pride Festival! We aim to have very very LGBTQIA+ full on décor in the area. These will cost us $$.
8. Facilitation of the activities.

There is so much, that your donation will do for us! For $1, we are able to have a database of beneficiaries that will participate in various long term initiatives by the 13 organizations for sustainable humanitarian, aid, response and development interventions.

How can you support us?

You can give from $1 to support towards the Pride Festival. We are running this fundraiser for 4 weeks and we hope that we will be able to actualize this long overdue and much needed and to be experienced 

For any information, email stellakhachina@usikimye.org ;