To kick off the new year, African Queer Youth Initiative, an organisation with the mission to equip and support African Youth with tools and resources to advocate for their rights, recently released a report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on LGBT+ youths in Africa. Since its founding in 2015, the African Queer Youth Initiative (AQYI) hasactively been mobilizing, supporting, and amplifying African queer youths’ and activists’ voices.
In 2020, AQYI set out to understand the impact of COVID-19 on LGBT+ youths in Africa by launching a survey seeking to collect meaningful data and inform the organization’s critical work in a post COVID world. Young and Outside the Margins documents the far-reaching impact of the pandemic on LGBT+ youths in Africa. The report outlines the complex challenges that African LGBT+ youths face and the need for a multi-dimensional approach to recovery efforts dealing with the pandemic, despite the good news with vaccines globally.
The report also includes priority recommendations to assist responses led by governments, donors, organizations, and the private sector. Moreover, to bring any on-going efforts concerning the pandemic within the broader LGBT+ movement to scale, LGBT+ youths in Africa must be prioritized as critical demography with agency and a significant role.
“The AQYI, through this report, is not only calling on the government, local and international actors to take actions in addressing the impact of COVID-19 on African LGBT+ youths but demanding accountability from community leaders as well. Young people should not just be considered leaders of tomorrow, but as leaders for the NOW and today’s realities,” their statement says.
The report was written by Chioma Ogwuegbu, Stephen C., and Adesanya Samuel, with support from Basiru Alumbugu.
