Proud@KACH: Creating Safe Spaces for LGBT University & College Students in Kakamega project creates a safe space for the LGBT university and college students in Kakamega. Specifically, the project targets the students of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Mount Kenya University, University of Nairobi Kakamega Branch, Kenyatta University Kakamega Branch, Jomo Kenyatta University Kakamega Branch, and the neighbouring Kibabii University.

The project provides a safe space for social networking for the LGBT students and youth to promote group dialogue, discussions and conversations on issues affecting LGBT youth and students in the area. This platform for education on LGBT rights, issues affecting youth such as sexuality, identity, family, stress, coming out, allows for space where LGBT youth/ students can share their experiences and find support.

The empowerment grant project provided a safe space for social networking for LGBT University and college students.  Sullivan Reed Society successfully mobilised 50 students and community youth from the LGBTI+ community based in universities and colleges around Western Kenya. The most significant changes observed with the project were the increased sense of openness, community and belonging among the LGBT students and youth. 

More specifically, other project results included; 

• Launching one of the first LGBTI safe spaces for university & college students in Kakamega; holding monthly  meetings  where  over 150  LGBT  students  &  youth  shared  experiences that resulted in building  a community where participants learned from each other every month. 
• Equipped  over  100  LGBT  students  &  youth  with  employable  skills  by  holding  workshops  on  CV writing, interviewing skills and entrepreneurship. 
• Created a safe  virtual  community  for  the  LGBT  students  and  youth  during  the  COVID-19  pandemic ensuring that members had mental well-being, connectedness and felt supported. 

Some key learnings from the project implementation; The  importance  of  co-creating  programmes  with  the  beneficiaries allowed the team to design and implement  the  programmes  in  a  meaningful  and  relevant  manner.  In addition, it ensured high engagement throughout the project cycle. 

Community partnerships are essential to the success of a project. Our partnership with Gumzo ensured that mobilisation was fairly easy; it ensured a constant flow of feedback to our approaches and also allowed us to serve a significant number of LGBT youth living and working in Kakamega that did not have a safe space to do so. 

Adaptability to changes in project implementation. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, our ability to quickly adjust our implementation plan from physical meetings to virtual engagements allowed us to continue building a community and sense of belonging to our members in virtual world.