THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

As some of you know, we have been shuttling back and forth to Africa for the past several years (Nathan since 2001, Mel since 2006) where Nathan has been involved in various efforts to develop university-level social work education programs in Tanzania and at Addis Ababa University, research issues of HIV drug adherence (as a Fulbright scholar in 2006), and to develop programs for district-level para-social workers serving orphans and vulnerable children in Tanzania.

In all of this work, Nathan is the professional (who does the work!) and I go along to give what support and company I can (and, provide comedy relief). We are now back in Oak Park after seven weeks in South Africa, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

In all of these years, we have traveled as a couple who have been together (now for 27 years). Our wedding in Washington, D.C. two years ago was posted on Facebook and celebrated by our many African friends. Yet, in Tanzania and Ethiopia homosexuals are subject to draconian social stigmatization, and homosexuality is a criminal offense subject to 15 years in prison. In 12 years, we have met and worked with hundreds of Africans on the frontlines of the "helping professions" serving where there are needs at every hand. We have meet only one openly gay Ethiopian (who soon fled to Norway) and, just last year, one openly gay Tanzanian man who stayed home to fight. It is about that man, his struggle and his organization that I am writing this letter.

We meet James Wandera a year ago when I ran across a local reference to a new LGBT organization, WEZESHA, advocating for civil rights. Immediately intrigued, I called a listed number and found James. We were unable to get together while on that trip to Dar es Salaam, but Nathan did meet Jim and a woman colleague—and visit WEZESHA's office—later last spring.

At that time, Nathan was able to gain an understanding of the organization's membership (around 200 at that time) and programs (advocacy, support groups, HIV counseling). We learned more about WEZESHA when we met James at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. last July. His visit there was sponsored by The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) who included James in several of their panel groups. Last month, again we were in Dar es Salaam, and Nathan and I helped James with an article he is writing for the African Journal of Social Work. And, I learned more of James' own story of how he had come to found WEZESHA.

James was born in Bukoba, near Lake Victoria in Tanzania. He graduated from seminary in Uganda, and was at the point of ordination as a priest when he informed his bishop that he was homosexual. He found himself immediately expelled from the church. He soon found out also that he was HIV-positive. James didn't talk much about this part of his life, but it is clear from listening to him that rejection from his church had a tremendous impact on his sense of both himself, and of his church. Importantly, the experience did not deter him from his will to serve needs he found all around him. James pursued further studies in non-profit business management, and found employment with an international HIV/AIDS outreach organization working in Tanzania. He was a community outreach worker for three years. It was this work that brought awareness of the desperate need to develop support for LGBT Tanzanians excluded from access to care at every turn. James began building the organization that became WEZESHA from personal funds saved from this period. The organization was registered with the Tanzanian government three years ago.

Until WEZESHA's founding there was no voice for LGBT persons in Tanzania, and no venues for making connections, developing programs or advocacy. The need for such a voice led to the establishment of WEZESHA in 2009 by a group of LGBTs with a cause for other LGBTs in Tanzania. The organization currently has more than 200 members and works to advance equality, diversity, education and justice. WEZESHA seeks recognition of human rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity at the national level (the country is currently calling for public input in a new constitution to be approved soon) and promotes the articulation of clear national norms and, as James tells me, to "mobilize international pressure because our government has failed to live up to those standards."

WEZESHA has amplified the voices of LGBT people during HIV/AIDS prevention and control policy reviews, and has assisted in development of stigma reduction strategies. WEZESHA is now the leading organization working directly with social media to ensure that LGBT stories are heard—again as James says, "because as people get to know the LGBT community they come to understand that we simply seek and deserve the same things all Tanzanians do: to take care of each other and our families, to have decent jobs, to support our neighborhoods and to publicly serve our local, national, and religious communities."

WEZESHA is creating a national network to ensure that groups and individuals working on these issues do not do so in isolation but as part of an effective, coordinated national movement that will strengthen mechanisms for monitoring, documenting and reporting human-rights violations and create opportunities for leading national stakeholders to work effectively together to advance clearly articulated strategic goals.

In a recent initiative, WEZESHA in partnership with Ilala Municipality is establishing a gay clinic at Tabata Health Center to provide free quality health services, including HIV testing, TB screening, treatment care and support to more than 500 LGBT people in the Dar es Salaam region.

James arranged for us to meet with six WEZESHA members all of whom were young, HIV-positive, banished by their families and struggling to keep their lives together. We met in an outdoor café in the poor Dar neighborhood of Tabata. They were eager to ask us lots of questions about our world, one they could hardly imagine: where two old gay "Babus" could live together openly for 27 years. They told us about their lives, too: how they were rejected by their families when their sexual orientation was discovered, how without financial support they were expelled from schools, how even as waiters and cleaners they were fired from their jobs, how some of them had turned to sex work to survive, how they learned most tragically they were HIV-positive. They told us how hard it was for them to find support in their search for healthcare in a society where they are shunned by healthcare providers anxious to avoid the stain of homosexuality.

We found no hang-dog, "save the puppies", search for sympathy from these boys. They were bright. They were funny. They were happy to be together. And here is where the valuable work of WEZESHA was most strikingly obvious. The organization provided them with hope for their futures.

WEZESHA now has a unique opportunity to establish a mechanism for securing international support through an Open Challenge provided by the organization Global Funding, who supports small not-for-profit organizations worldwide. The challenge is that WEZESHA must raise $5,000 from not less than 40 donors by April 30, 2013. If this threshold is met, WEZESHA will be featured permanently on Global Funding's Website, where they have the potential to benefit from corporate relationships, find exposure to a new donor network and access dozens of online funding tools.

I am asking you to help WEZESHA succeed in this challenge by making whatever online contribution you can … no matter how small. If you ever felt that you would like to make an important contribution to the front lines of the civil-rights struggle, I can assure you that your opportunity is now. And, here is what you can do:

— Make a Donation now to WEZESHA: www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-lgbt-access-free-quality-health-service/ .

— Call or email at least five friends and ask them to donate.

— Post a link to our project page your Facebook page asking your friends to donate.

Also see: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-lgbt-access-free-quality-health-service/

Mel Wilson and Nathan Linsk are co-founders of OPALGA, the Oak Park Area Lebian and Gay Association, in west suburban Chicago.