“Medication is now not easy to get. Reason being, last time you were free to go to the government facility and just openly say that you belong to the [key population] group. But people now fear that you cannot go and open yourself to the law enforcers because you don’t know what the person on the reception is thinking about the community, so this time round you have to pass through different routes to get treatment, which was not the case back then,” he tells GAY TIMES. “I’ve been following 75 members on PrEP, but right now I’m only following 20. The 55 are now lost. Why? They all fear going to the facilities. I’ve been following 120 members on HIV treatment because they know I’m also getting my treatment from Mulago. But this time around, they fear going to Mulago. I now have to struggle to make sure that I go and get refills for them.”
As someone who is gay and has been living with HIV for the last 10 years, Gerald founded Foaster Foundation for Health Care Uganda in 2019 because he has “passed through a lot of difficulties” as a result of his status and identity and wanted to help others. “I decided to start from myself and to use my challenges as a way forward to support my friends – that’s why I came up with the organisation,” he explains. “In this moment in Uganda, LGBTQIA+ persons have to try their best. We have to fend for ourselves because of this new law. We used to think the government was on our side but, this time around, things are totally different.”
Over the last four years, the Foaster Foundation for Health Care Uganda has set up an array of programs that have supported LGBTQIA+ people struggling with homelessness, helped those living with HIV access treatment and worked with the local community to raise awareness about a number of important issues. This work has, however, faced “a lot of challenges” since the effects of the Anti-Homosexuality Act started being felt last year. “We have been raided twice in August and also in November,” Gerald says. “Police and army raided our shelter, arrested us and destroyed our property. They don’t use legal systems to arrest you, it’s just an abrupt raid.”
“When you read this new law, there is a phrase which says that those who are hosting houses, who are hosting gay people or a gay person, you have a right to report to the police or communities,” he continues. “When they hear that you’re gay, they just come, they arrest people, they take documents from your offices, they take some commodities that you have. It’s just like they want to threaten you because they want money.”