Sexual Minorities Program

Communities of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are present in every country around the world. Members of LGBT communities often face extreme stigma, discrimination and violence at the individual, community and structural level. This not only results in human rights violations against LGBT people, but it also impedes access to life-saving public health interventions such as HIV prevention, STIs information and counselling and psychological support.

Improving health for sexual minorities

 

To address the issues related to sexual minorities’ health, we work closely with HDI and eight LGBT associations in Rwanda. HDI provides counsel and support to Rwandan LGBT communities and in July 2015 it opened a healthcare facility aimed at providing health services to sexual minorities, sex workers and adolescents. The healthcare facility allows access to condoms and other contraceptives, access to counsel, therapy and HIV and STIs testing and treatment. It also provides legal advice in cases of sexual abuse and physical abuse due to gender identity or sexual orientation.

 

SOGH has worked together with HDI in developing informative materials on sexuality and gender, sexual orientation, sexual education, HIV and STIs. Furthermore, SOGH and HDI have been working together in spreading information to other LGBT and human rights organizations in order to update them on the work that HDI is pursuing in the field of sexual health and sexual education towards sexual minorities.

SOGH & HDI partnership

 

Together with HDI, we will be recruiting interns who will work for HDI during summer 2016. Students or recent graduates with a background in psychology or medicine will work with STI testing and counseling at the clinic, while students from other backgrounds with an interest in LGBTIQ issues and sexual and reproductive health will work on grant and proposal writing and on improving the monitoring and evaluation systems for the project. Since LGBT health is not a topic tackled in medical and psychology schools in Rwanda, the partnership will help provide such knowledge to the local staff, with the final outcome of increased awareness of LGBT health.