By Aisha.
Contrary to majority of the people, the COVID-19 lockdown was not very bad on my side but rather a breakthrough for me and my colleagues.
After whole year of discussing about starting up a community led organisation for the Rural LGBT persons in the Rwenzori region due to dissatisfactory services from available KP led organisations. We finally had time off school and work to concentrate and kick-start the organisation.
The beginning wasn’t easy but the mere fact that we had the time to finally sit, concentrate and add a brick to the growth was more than enough for all of us. I remember us drafting our organisation constitution with alot of passion and hope, then with our few savings, we were able to secure some office equipment such as a desktop, one office table 3 office chairs, one sofa and a book shelf. We also rented a one room for office space and had our office setup.
We proceeded with registration at the district, as we also submitted in to HRAPH to render help at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) after which we also opened up the organisation account.
To be honest I did miss the life before lockdown a little bit though most of our days, we were in our one room office writing proposals and concepts to different donors and one day led to another without us even noticing that there is a world out there that feels locked out from most of the life they loved before.
We also used most of this time reaching out to most of our target beneficiaries and potential working partners especially the health facilities and because we were already offering psycosocial support and legal aid, it was not hard for us to create visibility to our target beneficiary groups.
The shock on us however was in November 2020, after the lockdown was lifted when unknown people broke into our one room office at night and stole almost all our office furniture and equipment leaving us with only publications and the book shelf. This broke all of us but on the positive side, it also paved way for us to work smart and work even harder to have a more secure office space regardless of some other challenges here and there.
So one day when you visit Twilight Support Initiative-Kasese remember it was born as a result of COVID-19 lockdown because it was during that time that we were able to fully complete the registration and have the organisation kick-start.
We recognise one of our mentors Coalition For Human Rights Education.(COHRE) who has moved the journey with us from the inception of the organisation to date.
