The Queer African Youth Networking Center

Mission

The Queer African Youth Networking Center works to establish a wide network of support to promote the safety and well-being of gays, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning African youth.

Objective

·To foster communities understanding of sexual minorities that promotes tolerance and respect of gender expression;

·To establish a strong network of support including civil society, parents and youth to bring LGBTQI issues into broader human rights struggle;

·To develop comprehensive training programs to empower youth to be responsible leaders committed to bringing social change in their communities.

Core Values

Equality: We value societies that respect, promote and celebrate diversities, including the rights of sexual minorities within their communities. We understand equality as the absence of discrimination and the promotion of fairness.

Security: We value social and economic securities that enable all citizens to access the tools needed to meet our basic needs and fulfill our responsibilities.

Perseverance: We realize the daunting tasks ahead to address homophobia and heterosexism in African cultures, and we embrace the slow and long processes to overturn the misconceptions and traditional practices that harm our communities.

Innovative and strategical Thinking: We encourage critical thinking of social issues and foster strategical collaborations that promote social change.

ACTIVITIES ·Education and vocational skills development: Addressing Poverty Among Youth or A-PAY is QAYN-Center’s program that develops steps to reduce poverty among queer youth. The program will combine vocational training programs and access to credit through strategic partnerships with local financial institutions to support enterprise development for queer youth.

·Advocacy/Capacity Building: Empowering Queer African Youth or EQUAY is our multi-partnerships capacity building program with a two fold purpose—to foster open discussion and dialogue on cultural sensitive issues including gender roles and expression, sexual education and reproductive health rights with key actors in the community to build support for LGBTQI rights in the region, and to train trainers of peer educators to build the leadership and organizational skills of local youth-led initiatives to clearly and convincingly advocate for their interests and needs.

·Health and Wellness: Helping Ourselves Together or HOT is our health and wellness program with the aim of building the capacity of LGBTQI youth peer counselors to effectively disseminate information on sexual education, gender identity, sexual orientation, substance abuses, behavior change and to mainstream sexual and reproductive health interventions in the their communities in Sub-saharan Africa.

. Promoting Current and Accurate Information: Safe Access to Information, or SAI is our online support program, which through groups, forums, toolkits and other online resources, enable youth to safely access information and discuss culturally sensitive issues across Sub-saharan Africa. This program aims to bring together young people voices as activists, community organizers, advocates and human rights defenders to foster co-operation, participation and learning through experience.