At a time when the majority of young people rather watch videos on YouTube than the traditional TV, it may seem obvious to use the internet for educating and informing young people about human rights and other issues around the world. Although it has changed a lot in recent years, there is a great potential to develop this further, primarily through the use of video.
During 19 months, Story4change has followed a young trans woman’s life in Uganda. A place where LGBTI people are murdered, tortured and abused every day. The founder of the organization Jonny Von Wallström met Cleopatra Kambugu for the first time in 2013. He was fascinated by her courage as the first trans woman to openly transition in the discriminatory Ugandan society. She was determined not to let other people’s ignorance stand in the way of her life.
Jonny and Cleo both shared a will to tell a story that humanizes the trans community, and to avoid doing so through the story of an activist. Even though Cleo is an activist, they both thought that activism isn’t always best served when provocative; provocation can be counter-effective, alienating people rather than helping them understand things they have little knowledge about.
He shared her story with the members of Story4change, his idea of helping Cleo get her voice heard. The members agreed on the fact that, in order to reach people who weren’t promoting LGBTI rights, we needed to find a story that was universal and could reach across all groups of people. Since then, we’ve been following the Cleo’s life up closely for 19 months.
On the 8th of December Story4change finally got the chance to share her story. It was launched through a six parts web-series, giving people a glimpse of the terrible life as a Ugandan transgender woman. The goal with the series was from the beginning to create a project that could give life to a debate and raise awareness of the violence and discrimination taking place on LGBTI people in Uganda.
What we’ve witnessed is a personal story of love, acceptance and being trans, a story that gives a glimpse into the Ugandan trans community and the struggles they face every day, from the days before the first Anti-Homosexuality Act was presented to today, when once again there are talks of a new draconian law being proposed in Uganda. The last one was brought down by activists after President Museveni signed it into law, but Cleo had already been outed in the Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper as a “homosexual,” forcing her to leave Uganda for her own safety.
The web-series turned out to be a huge success. It caught attention from not only individuals, but also human rights organizations such as Global Voices and Transgender Law Center. Together with the world’s biggest blog, Huffington Post, the series managed to raise awareness of the issues worldwide. Since then, the story has been published on several international media houses such as Huffington Post, MSN, AOL, Okayafrica etc.
This awareness campaign has been a sample of what Story4change wants to accomplish in their work. It have helped a Ugandan activist to spread the message of what’s happening in Uganda.