Our Founder's Story
Hello, it is my pleasure to introduce myself and share with you about my life experience as a gay father.
I was born in 1986 in East Africa Uganda. I was born and raised in a very poor family of my mother and father who both worked as farmers, this was normal in our village since many of the residents were farmers too. I was born alone to my mother because she and my father were not married. My father later married after separating from my mother. This makes me the first and last born to my mother. My father, having another wife, gave me little siblings, five in total, three girls and two boys.
Life in my village was not good at all, especially for our family. Accessing education was hard, however my father always tried his best to see me getting. Drought, hunger, cholera and Ebola outbreaks always attacked our village, and it didn't leave it as it was before. Accessing medication was a very hard process since the Government hospital was far and transportation means were very poor, some people couldn't make it to the hospital and even those who could make it to the hospital were not helped because there was no medication at all. In these conditions I lost my younger brother when he was the age of fifteen.
At the age of fourteen and a few months after I joined secondary school, I realized I was bisexual and started dating one schoolmate called John*. I was still attracted to girls at this time also. John was from Tanzania though part of his family was in Uganda. He taught me how to be extra careful with dating fellow boys with the anti-homosexual society leaning in our local culture. I usually had a girlfriend while dating John.
Two years later, when I was in class three secondary school, John and I were found having sex and things turned worse on our side. We were beaten by a group of fellow students and later teachers saved us. We thought we were saved but we were not. The teachers became more hostile than the students and we were locked up in the school store and beaten up properly, kicked, and isolated. We could hear the students outside shouting loudly that we should be burnt before the day ends.
We were expelled from school in front of my father. Immediately my father told me he did not want to find me at home. He said I should go find my way or else he will hang me. I rushed to my mother's place since they had separated a long time back. When I arrived at my mother's place, she was curious to know why I had many bruises, injuries and looked worried. I never told her anything. I just went to a room for a rest because I was in much pain. I couldn't think well at that time and my whole body was shaking...
We will continue my story in coming newsletters and introduce you to the stories of other MAREPA residents.
Thank you,
Kelly*
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.