Foundation for Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer, and Gender Non-Conforming Refugees (FLBQR)

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

Kenya

Number of survivors served in a year

Less than 20

Languages

English

Groups most commonly served

Members of the LGBTQIA+ community Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Women

Type of organization

Grassroots/community-based organization Nonprofit or non-governmental organization (NGO) Volunteer-led organization

Program model(s)

Holistic crisis response Rights-based economic justice Survivor-centered income generation Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

flbqrfoundation@gmail.com

Service Area(s)

Nairobi, Kenya

Successes and Impact

“Most of the survivors that have gone through our program have been really vocal in the communities, speaking down on such abuses. I think that has had the greatest impact.”¹

FLBQR’s work is rooted in a survivor-centered approach that creates tailored, holistic responses to support survivors as they heal from trauma, build confidence and self-esteem, and advocate for their rights across all areas of their lives.

Supporting survivors in crisis and providing a pathway to financial independence

FLBQR offers emergency assistance alongside programming that supports survivors in building long-term financial stability, helping them break free from the cycle of abuse. One client, a lesbian refugee and mother of two, was being threatened by her daughters’ violent father and feared for their lives. “It was hard to leave, but FLBQR gave a shelter to stay,” she recalls. The organization also supported her with training on how to create products and marketing advice. She now creates and sells jewelry in local marketplaces to support her daughters.

Survivor self-advocacy

Many survivors who have worked with FLBQR become self-advocates in their communities, workplaces, and intimate relationships. This personal transformation is made possible by trained community paralegals who equip survivors with a deeper understanding of their rights.

Reducing stigma and creating safe spaces for survivors with similar backgrounds and experiences

Beyond helping survivors attain financial independence, FLBQR has fostered healing spaces where LBQGNC refugees can meet each other safely and find temporary reprieve from the difficulties they face.² “The program we do is usually hands-on, and survivors get to meet other people in a safe space. During the crafting of these [jewelry] beads, their minds are taken off [the difficulties]. Someone’s thoughts are not on what they have survived.”

The organization emphasizes that these spaces are primarily facilitated by survivors themselves. This approach “builds the conversations, and people are able to open up through their stories.” FLBQR further explains that, “The community is so small, and people are usually like, ‘Should I stay closeted?’ Or, they don’t engage with others more often [due to] different reasons around their security and safety. [The conversations] build community.”

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“There’s no doubt that financial stability increases the self-esteem and the confidence of a person to fight for what is right or to even fight for their rights as a person.”

About the Program

FLBQR provides comprehensive support for LBQGNC refugees, including survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), by addressing both short- and long-term needs. Their programming includes economic assistance with basic necessities along with vocational skills training and product marketing support for handicrafts such as crochet, jewelry, beadwork, and tailoring. By equipping program participants with practical skills and income-generating opportunities, FLBQR expands the economic possibilities available to survivors, supporting their journey toward long-term stability.

“The survivors that usually reach out to us, they are trans men, trans women, or people with various gender expressions that hinder them from having mainstream employment,” says the organization. “That is why, for most of them, when they come, they want vocational training in employable skills and also hand skills that don’t need formal employment, where someone can start their own small business.”

The organization’s economic stability programming is part of a wider survivor-centered approach, which includes legal aid, psycho-social support circles, and a network of partner organizations who are sensitive to and supportive of the particular circumstances of LBQGNC refugees.

Program Development and Key Strategies

The organization identified the following strategies as crucial to their program’s success:

Collaborative partnerships with a wide range of organizations
Alternative, survivor-centered approaches to justice and healing

Collaborative partnerships with a wide range of organizations

Meeting survivors’ basic needs through organizational partnerships

Collaborations with a variety of NGO agencies and private organizations are pivotal to FLBQR’s success. These partnerships include working with local LGBTQIA+ and refugee organizations to meet survivors’ basic needs, such as food, toiletries, and shelter facilities. “We provide a food package to the survivors when they join the programs. We’ve seen that this motivates them into starting their healing journeys,” the organization notes. The provision of necessities also functions as an entry point to both identify survivors and assess some of their longer-term needs, including their financial stability.

Expanding the range of available services through support networks

Local partners bring expertise in various handicraft vocational training, refugee concerns, and trauma counseling. “Collaboration among organizations, government agencies, community groups, and stakeholders can enhance the collective impact and effectiveness of services,” FLBQR comments. “Sharing resources, expertise, and networks can lead to more comprehensive support for survivors and better coordination of efforts.”

Ensuring the safety of LBQGNC refugees while accessing services

FLBQR must also balance building a comprehensive network of supportive partners alongside security concerns regarding LBQGNC refugees. When navigating situations that may place survivors at further risk, the organization uses the existing legal framework as a tool: “For example, everyone in Kenya is entitled to the best health services. If we have a survivor of GBV that needs medical care, we are going to go to these centers that provide that care. In most cases, we do not expose that this person belongs to the LGBT community. We first focus on the best way to engage with these stakeholders. . . . We use the human rights-based approach.”³

Alternative, survivor-centered approaches to justice and healing

Survivors who are refugees in addition to being queer or gender diverse face complex and intersecting challenges in seeking support. Both the criminalization of LGBTQIA+ identity in Kenya and the restricted rights and options of refugees can further endanger these survivors’ safety.⁴ “For survivors of IPV who approach us, there are other ways we support them to find closure, safety, and healing [in cases where] involving the police or legal system is not the best option due to safety concerns or personal preferences,” FLBQR says.

The organization thus focuses on alternative approaches that avoid creating additional risks for these survivors. These include:

Making programming available to trans men and gender non-conforming individuals, as these groups are often left out of many IPV programs that typically focus on women.

Facilitating community peer support groups for survivors to share experiences and coping strategies with others who have gone through similar situations.

Providing legal support through trained community paralegals who have experience in psychosocial first aid.

Offering alternative dispute resolution mediated by staff or community leaders to resolve conflicts without involving the formal legal system, allowing survivors to have more control over the process.

Survivor Leadership

“Who better knows how to handle a situation than someone who has gone through it and feels like there is a need? . . . Like I said, one of the tools we use is ‘survivor best,’ where someone who is going through it tells us what they think could help their situation. This also helps us to make the responses and the help we give to survivors.”

FLBQR centers the specific intersection of queerness and refugee status in their own organizational identity, giving them unique insights into the particular needs of the individuals they work with. Queer refugee survivors lead this organization and hold a range of key decision-making positions, and most of their staff are also queer refugees. The organization values the ability of survivors to draw on their lived realities to support other survivors in healing from trauma as well as in learning practical trade skills.

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

FLBQR operates in a large urban setting in Kenya where many organizations address gender-based violence, but queer survivors often encounter social stigma and criminalization that make it difficult to safely access mainstream services or support.⁵ The socio-economic barriers faced by refugees in Kenya—who mainly come from neighboring countries, including Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and Burundi—create additional challenges for these individuals in achieving economic security.⁶

The following key factors shape how survivors experience economic harm in this particular context:

Refugees face distinct economic challenges due to the trauma of forced migration and their legal status
Overlapping systemic barriers for LBQGNC refugees create additional economic risks and hinder access to services

Refugees face distinct economic challenges due to the trauma of forced migration and their legal status

Trauma and documentation barriers prevent refugees from building economic stability

“Refugees are also dealing with the traumas that forced them to flee their homes. They are unable to even focus on other stuff like strategizing around their financial stability.” FLBQR explains that the uncertainty of refugees’ current situation and the experience of displacement also make it difficult to work toward long-term stability: “The fact that the countries of asylum or the host countries are not really home, refugees don’t see a need to permanently build a life.”

While Kenyan law grants refugees the right to work, FLBQR observes that, in practice, it is extremely difficult for refugees to access essential documentation like work permits that allow them to secure formal employment. For asylum seekers who are not yet officially recognized as refugees, this is even harder: “You might spend 10 years as an asylum seeker without getting the work permit,” says FLBQR. The organization notes that work permits are essential for individuals to look for jobs and work towards financial stability.

Harm-doers take advantage of the lack of protections for refugees

“The exploitation happens first because of their refugee status, where their partners know that this person is not entirely protected by law. They also know the barriers that refugee status brings about because you don’t have a work permit,” FLBQR observes. “If you have a partner, in this case, maybe a citizen of the country, they can take advantage of you financially because for them, as citizens, they have more economic inclusion in their country.”

Overlapping systemic barriers for LBQGNC refugees create additional economic risks and hinder access to services

Criminalization and discrimination create multiple barriers to safety and economic security

LGBTQIA+ individuals are legally criminalized in Kenya, and thus queer and gender diverse survivors hold a vulnerable and unprotected status, including in intimate partner relationships.⁷ FLBQR observes, “When it comes to intimate partner violence, it’s complicated to report such cases to the police because, for example, if you are a lesbian woman, you are not going to go to the police that’s supposed to charge you with homosexuality to say that, ‘My girlfriend is the one who beat me up,’ because you also risk criminalizing yourself. Most cases go unreported and the partners, the survivors, have to go through the healing process by themselves.”

Moreover, social stigma and discrimination against LGBTQIA+ individuals “prevents survivors from seeking help, accessing services, or disclosing their experiences, thereby hindering effective intervention and support,” says FLBQR. They explain that gaps in legal protections and policies specific to LBQGNC refugees mean that survivors of IPV often encounter “legal and documentation challenges that hinder their ability to secure stable employment and financial resources.” This can result in limited access to formal employment or financial assistance programs, impeding financial freedom and creating additional obstacles to long-term economic security.

Discrimination against LBQGNC persons is reinforced both by religious leaders and by government

“The legal framework in which we are operating has made it hard to provide programming to people who need it,” says FLBQR. They explain that Christian religious norms limit the government’s ability and willingness to provide support to organizations working with the LGBTQIA+ community: “We’ve also seen religious leaders coming up to condemn homosexuality. This means the government can’t have the political will to help with such programs.”

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
The abbreviation “LBQGNC” is used when referring to individuals that the organization works with, while “LGBTQIA+” is used when referring to a more general group.
Constitution of Kenya, art. 43 (1)(A).
Penal Code, Laws of Kenya Cap. 63, §§ 162-163, 165. Refugees in Kenya face restrictions on their ability to move freely within the country. While Kenyan law grants recognized refugees the right to work, accessing work permits and other necessary documentation is extremely difficult in practice (Thomas Ginn, Reva Resstack, Helen Dempster, Emily Arnold-Fernández, Sarah Miller, Martha Guerrero Ble et al., “2022 Global Refugee Work Rights Report,” Center for Global Development, Refugees International, and Asylum Access, 2022, 132-133, https://asylumaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-Global-Refugee-Work-Rights-Report_LAUNCH.pdf).
“Kenya’s Katiba Day: Reflecting on the Impact of Outdated Laws in Kenya,” galck+, August 25, 2023, https://galck.org/kenyas-katiba-day-reflecting-on-the-impact-of-outdated-laws-in-kenya/..
UNHCR Kenya – DIMA Unit, Nairobi, “Kenya: Registered refugees and asylum-seekers,” July 31, 2024, https://www.unhcr.org/ke/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Kenya-Statistics-Package-31July2454.pdf.
Kenya criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual conduct under Sections 162 and 163 of the Penal Code as a felony punishable by fourteen years of prison. Section 165 of the Penal Code further criminalizes “any act of gross indecency” between men in public or private as a felony punishable by five years’ imprisonment (“Kenya’s Katiba Day,” galck+).