THE RED UMBRELLA FUND’S GLOBAL CALL FOR APPLICATIONS IS OPEN

The Red Umbrella Fund’s global Call for Applications is open until 1 August 2016.

Is your group, organisation or network led by sex workers?

Do you agree that sex work should be recognised as work?

Do you contribute to building and strengthening the sex workers’ rights movement(s)?

The Red Umbrella Fund gives grants to sex worker-led groups and networks that are registered or unregistered. In 2016, we expect to make about 20 core funding grants to local, national and international sex worker-led organisations and networks.

Apply for a grant here.

Find French version here.

Study, 70 per cent of Water Consumed in Nairobi and Kisumu Contaminated with ARVs

24 pharmaceuticals- the highest concentrations being antibiotics and ARVs, used to treat HIV and malaria are found in rivers, waste and ground water in Nairobi and Kisumu counties.

This is according to a study, Occurrence Patterns of Pharmaceutical Residues in Waste Water, Surface Water and Ground Water of Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya, conducted by the University of Eldoret in collaboration with Ghent University, Belgium.

Read more…

Drowning

Maalika Kazia

A few weeks ago, someone very close to me began suffering from depression. Nothing in particular triggered it. It is not a reaction to a painstaking event which unfolded out of thin air. At least not something starkly visible.

This person is in his 7th week of this ordeal. He has been diagnosed with “severe depression”.

I may look at this person as a separate entity from myself. As someone “other” from my own flesh. But what he is feeling and cannot express pains me as if it is my mind which is drowning itself in this disease. With an almost domino-like effect, all those people who try and try to keep him afloat are drowning in this ocean of despair he is immersed  within.

Depression is a disease. A disease with causes, symptoms and treatments. Yet, many members of society look upon it as a mental prison of choosing…

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When I see you cry, when you are taught about us, the INVISIBLE “I”

Intersex Day of Remembrance is November 8th.

Mx. Anunnaki Ray

It is huge for me, to break the silence, with Dr. Judi Herring, M.D.,  and share with you the atrocities faced by intersex people.  Most of us have heard the acronyms,  LGBT, which stand for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.  My story is about the “I”, that is rarely mentioned, and of course “I” stands for intersex.

I thank you for listening with care, and hearing my story.  I see your tears out in the audience when I talk to you.  I see you squirm in your seat, as you watch Dr. Herring’s TEDx GENDER BOUND, and you learn about things kept from you, that were never taught to you in this world until now.

My heart goes out to each and every one of you as your world crumbles to your feet and you learn about terrible human rights violations.  When you find out why they needed…

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