Peterborough resident Vivian Lyttle is on a campaign to raise awareness and funds for the LGBT+ members of the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, who have been targeted in a number of violent attacks at the hands of other refugees.
“Viv and others have helped both to create awareness, and materially in this struggle,” said spokesperson Gilbert Kagarura, speaking for residents of Block 13, the area of camp where many of the 300 or so LGBT+ refugees live after fleeing countries that include Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are more than 160,000 people in the camp, which the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) opened in 1992. In recent years, LGBT+ refugees have repeatedly called for greater security in light of homophobic attacks at the hands of other residents.
Lyttle is 23 and uses they/their pronouns. They moved to Peterborough in April this year from Amherst. Lyttle said they first started exploring queer rights issues in African countries after watching the 2019 film “Book Smart,” in which a character, who is gay, tells another that she would never go to Uganda out of fear for her life. Although some more extreme examples of anti-gay legislation have been overturned, Block 13 refugees face widespread discrimination in their past and present homes. Lyttle connected with Block 13 activists over Twitter and Facebook last September, and has been raising awareness and funds ever since.
Recently, Lyttle took on more hours at work in order to help refugees pay medical bills and obtain basic material needs, like mattresses and mosquito nets. “It’s a lot of pressure with keeping promises and remembering them and fulfilling them and having to choose who to help for that week, and making a few people happy while also disappointing many others,” they said. Lyttle has also raised funds from local Black Lives Matter protesters, as well as a Pride event in Milford.
It’s been a wrenching experience, Lyttle said. Three members of Kakuma’s LGBT+ community that have died in the past year, they said, including their friend Chriton Atuhwera, a 32-year-old Ugandan man who succumbed to his burns after a March 15 firebombing. Sexual assaults, beatings, and property theft and damage are all too common, Lyttle said. “There aren’t a lot of activists helping with this particular problem,” they said, sometimes due to lack of awareness.
Block 13 residents are calling for relocation to a safe environment in a different country, but they’ve received pushback from the UNHCR, which handles relocations on individual bases and has so far resisted calls for a mass relocation. Lyttle has befriended some queer Ugandan refugees who recently relocated to America, and hopes to help more leave the camp for good. “I want to do more than just help them make their lives easier in a horrible place,” they said.
Fellow Monadnock region residents can get involved by spreading the word about the plight of Block 13 residents, supporting associated activists, and donating to associated fundraisers on GoFundMe, Lyttle said. Nonprofits like South Africa’s Triangle Project are up to date on the refugees’ plight and accepting donations on their behalf. Updates are available on Twitter at #SolidarityKakumaLGBTQ and on Facebook under Free Block 13 Kakuma.
In the future, Lyttle hopes to attend college. Their dream is to make animated Disney movies with openly queer main characters, “characters so I can help kids who are queer and tell them that they aren’t alone and that they matter.”
“If I never get a chance to meet everyone or anyone who has suffered in that camp, they will always be my friends,” Lyttle said. “They will always be in my heart, and I will always be their hearts.”