Dear friends,
Two years ago my group, Shams, opened the only shelter in Tunisia for homeless lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender people.
It didn't take long for word to get out. In a country where you can be sent to jail just for being gay, a lot of people don't like what we do.
Shortly after opening, five attackers tried to break into the shelter. Police let the attackers off and refused to protect us. Violent threats have continued ever since. A petition was even launched to try and shut down our shelter.
Every day, more and more young LGBT people are rejected by their families. Leaving them to live on the streets is like a death sentence here. So we're doing all we can to stay open.
But we don't have the funds to keep the shelter running and we need your help. Without it, we'll be forced to close down at the end of February.
We need 935 more people to donate to keep the shelter open.
It's been illegal to be gay in Tunisia for over a century. But in the past two years, we've started fighting back.
While we've seen some important victories, our efforts have also been met with more hatred. We've seen an unprecedented surge of hate crimes against LGBT people in recent years.
That's why we decided to open the only LGBT shelter in Tunisia. We've hosted dozens of people, helping them find safety, community, and hope again.
People like 22-year-old Dali, whose family kicked him out because he was too "girly." Rather than face life on the streets, he was ready to take his own life. Thankfully, Dali found out about our shelter and is rebuilding his life.
But we won't be able to help people like Dali if we can't get the support we need. They'll have no other choice but to go back onto the streets.
Thanks for going All Out,
Mounir Baatour
President of Shams
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