CyaraKaira

Hi everyone, my name is CyaraKaira a transgender refugee living in South Sudan.

Escaping from Uganda simply for being who I am. I believed leaving would bring safety but when I reached Kenya the violence followed me. I was targeted because of my gender identity. I was tortured, stripped naked, attacked, cut with machetes and forced to witness the loss of lives within our community. Those experiences changed me forever and left scars that are both visible and invisible.

With nowhere left to run, I fled again this time to South Sudan together with my sisters. We came hoping to find a place where we could at least exist without fear. Instead we are struggling daily as visible transgender refugees. We face discrimination most of the times. Accessing basic services is also really hard due to our visible identities. The current festive season has become even more dangerous especially for refugees and foreigners with frequent arrests and insecurity.

On December 24th our worst fears became reality. Our home was violently raided by an armed group. They identified themselves as military but it was later confirmed they were a rebel group known to the government. They broke into our house and demanded ransom, threatened to take us to the bush and told us they would kill us or make us disappear. For nearly five hours, we were tortured and interrogated. We genuinely believed we were not going to survive that day.

By God’s grace, I was able to call Tasha who immediately contacted a protection officer. The protection officer then involved the police, the chairman and other officials who came to our location and rescued us. We were saved but our lives remain in danger. If such a group could come once, they can return. Our shelter is no longer safe, and staying there puts our lives at serious risk.

Because of this, Tasha helped us escape and relocate temporarily. We are currently staying in a hotel that she paid for but this support ends tomorrow and we have nowhere safe to go next. We are traumatized, living in fear and running out of options.

We are really asking for you help, we need to shift and change location because our lives are really in danger and we are afraid that we might end up loosing our lives. Please any donations will mean a lot to us as we need to collect enough for the shelter. Please consider supporting us through the support link in bio/ Profile.

At the same time, I want to share an important update about my future. I am currently working with an organization that is supporting my immigration and resettlement to Canada. I have already gone through most of the interviews, including the Canadian immigration interview, and the process is still ongoing. It has taken several months but we are hopeful and patiently waiting for the next steps.

I want to sincerely wish everyone a Happy New Year. Thank you to every person who has supported us, stood with us, donated, advocated for us and shown us kindness throughout this journey. Being a transgender refugee in South Sudan is something no one would ever wish for but your support has kept us going.

Thank you for reading, for caring and for standing with us.

CyaraKaira

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/34247713

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing okay. I am reporting again because the situation here is still really hard. The landlord who had earlier threatened to throw us out hasn’t come back since he left. We’re honestly still living in fear that when he returns, he might chase us away. We don’t know what will happen and that fear alone keeps us restless. Right now we also don’t have any food left, it’s really painful that I can’t even use the small money we have for something to eat because it’s meant for rent.

Being a refugee in South Sudan is honestly the hardest thing that we have no access to most basic needs because we’re visible transgenders. This makes it hard for us to seek help or safety because every is always watching us and many be questioning us if we are Male or female. We can’t go back to the camp since the government chased us out and now the camp itself is being targeted by nationals who believe we shouldn’t be there at all

We’ve been struggling since day one and you’ve been our only support and last hope. I know it’s overwhelming to see another post asking for help especially with everything happening in the world but we are just desperate right now.

So far, we’ve managed to raise $267 out of $950, meaning we still need $683 to clear rent and secure our shelter. Please consider helping us through the link in the Profile/Bio

Please if you can help or share it will mean so much to us. You’ve always been our hope when things get too heavy and we’re truly grateful for that. CyaraKaira

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/34171420

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/34171041

Hello everyone, trust all is well. My name is CyaraKaira and I’m one of the transgenders living in South Sudan. My journey has been really horrible from Uganda to Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp where my sisters and I faced so much transphobia including stripping us naked, beating, stoning and killing us.

UNHCR Kenya had to place us in a protection area. Honestly, the protection area was even worse unsafe and full of fear so we had to run for our lives again and that’s how we ended up in South Sudan. We stayed in Gorom refugee settlement for some months under UNHCR until the government had to chase us out of the camp because of gender identity. We stayed on the streets of Juba until we got a shelter through all your support

I’m updating because we’re now facing a serious problem. We have not paid rent for two weeks. Yesterday our landlord came to the shelter with his receipt book demanding payment. We didn’t have the money. We only had a little of it and he refused to take it insisting full payment. This made him really angry. He said if we don’t pay immediately he will call the local council to throw us out. He even started asking why we came to South Sudan, which was so painful and frightening because answering that truthfully can put us in danger.

Getting this shelter wasn’t easy. Most landlords here ask for IDs, and we only have UNHCR registration proof. Being an Ugandan refugee is risky because people either think you’re a terrorist or LGBTQ. This landlord didn’t ask too many questions, and that’s how we managed to stay. But now he’s threatening to evict us when he returns. We currently have 267$ out of 950$ we still need 683$ to cover up the rent please.

There is also a video of a South Sudanese national calling upon other Sudanese to attack the rest of the community that hasn’t managed to leave the camp. This also puts us at risk because the video is on social media, also my sister Tasha uploaded it on the fundraiser.

Please, if anyone can help us cover the rent, we would be so grateful. Your support means everything to us right now. The support link is in the bio/ profile

Thank you so much for taking time to read this and for standing with us.