True Champions HIV: Asylum Project
Participants of the Asylum Project share their experiences of fleeing persecution of being LGBT & living with AIDS/HIV & seeking asylum in the US.
In this episode of True Champions, participants of the Asylum Project at the Housing Works share their personal experience with the program. The Asylum Project supports HIV educators and LGBT activists seeking asylum in the U.S. because of persecution in their home countries.
Duration: 5:35. Last Updated On: Nov. 8, 2017, 6:14 p.m.
- 00:00 [MUSIC].
- 00:01 I'm Alex Wilson and I am a great spirit.
- 00:07 I'm not judgmental.
- 00:08 >> I am a friend.
- 00:10 >> I'm a community developer.
- 00:11 >> I'm growing.
- 00:12 >> I'm an advocate for [UNKNOWN].
- 00:14 >> I'm optimistic.
- 00:15 >> I'm becoming better.
- 00:17 [LAUGH] I'm from Nigeria.
- 00:19 I was worried about so many things back home.
- 00:23 families, and husbands, and wife being HIV positive,
- 00:27 people losing their lives and most of the community were in danger.
- 00:32 >> Surprisingly, there are countries around the world, many, in fact,
- 00:36 which make it illegal for someone to be gay, for someone to be LGBT.
- 00:41 To even provide assistance to people who are, who have HIV.
- 00:47 >> My name is Kadiri, Kadiri Audu.
- 00:50 I worked with the LGBT community back in Nigeria as a community organizer,
- 00:54 providing HIV services.
- 00:58 >> The epidemic has made, I think, the world smaller.
- 01:01 Homophobia is homophobia, wherever you.
- 01:03 You are.
- 01:04 Racism is racism wherever you are.
- 01:06 >> In Nigeria, it's a crime to hand out informational material about HIV.
- 01:14 >> If found guilty, you are liable to 10 years imprisonment.
- 01:17 If, if you are found guilty of gay,
- 01:19 amorous relationship, you are liable to 14 years imprisonment.
- 01:23 Where my office was.
- 01:26 The, the people of this community, you know,
- 01:29 rounded up the gay men living in that community, and, if not for, you know,
- 01:36 the timely intervention of some good hearted people, I tell you.
- 01:43 Maybe you have been counting num-,
- 01:44 maybe this would have been counting numbers of dead
- 01:48 people in that community now.
- 01:50 A lot of them were attacked with clubs,
- 01:52 knives, stones, chanting kill the gay people.
- 01:56 Cleanse our land.
- 01:57 That's what is very popular in Nigeria, you know, some will just.
- 02:02 I kept being an advocate even though there were dangers.
- 02:06 I know what the truth is, and I love my people, and I don't want them to,
- 02:12 many of them to make the kind of mistakes I made, being HIV positive.
- 02:16 >> I've been at the forefront, advocating for the community.
- 02:19 I have a family.
- 02:20 I have a wife and two kids, and this is the work I do to feed them.
- 02:25 They have been involved in organizing to help people learn more about HIV and
- 02:31 how to prevent themselves from contracting it.
- 02:34 Simply for those types of activities, they've had to flee their country.
- 02:38 >> Everything got so bad, and I knew it was time to leave.
- 02:43 >> I came to America to seek asylum.
- 02:49 >> We set the Asylum Project up recently to handle the needs of people coming to
- 02:54 the US who are seeking refuge from their countries, because of who they are and
- 02:58 because of their being advocates around HIV and LGBT issues.
- 03:03 We needed a safe space.
- 03:05 A place where we could be ourselves.
- 03:08 That's why we're here.
- 03:10 >> They've come to us seeking asylum.
- 03:13 We try to provide them a range of life saving services including medical care.
- 03:20 We try to arrange for health insurance, legal services.
- 03:23 [MUSIC].
- 03:24 Housing, education and employment, all with the goal of
- 03:28 helping them become independent and hopefully to carry on their advocacy
- 03:34 later on either in their home country when it's safe or here or elsewhere.
- 03:41 >> I'm needed somewhere I could feel belonged.
- 03:44 Somewhere where I could be loved.
- 03:45 Somewhere where nobody would tell me something is wrong with me, and
- 03:50 that's what Housing Works gave me.
- 03:52 I was really, really sick and they started treating me.
- 03:55 Took weeks and weeks for me to start responding.
- 03:58 What if Housing Works weren't here?
- 04:00 Maybe I probably would have died.
- 04:03 >> How did you get so expert at this?
- 04:07 Did we, did we train you or did you did you actually know some of this beforehand?
- 04:11 >> Of course.
- 04:11 Housing Works trained me.
- 04:13 I know nothing of this, Scott.
- 04:15 You know how I came, tired and hungry and flustered.
- 04:18 >> Right but...
- 04:19 >> But I, I look better now.
- 04:20 >> [MUSIC].
- 04:21 Since I've improved.
- 04:22 I'm in a house now.
- 04:23 I, I go to work now.
- 04:25 I volunteer.
- 04:26 I'm, I'm safe now.
- 04:26 I'm happy.
- 04:27 I'm not, I'm not worried that.
- 04:29 Anybody who will come after me.
- 04:31 >> Every month, we get one or new, one or two new people in the Asylum Project and
- 04:37 they're from countries, now, all over the world.
- 04:40 You were one of our first in the program,
- 04:42 and you've been just such a outstanding example of what we want to happen.
- 04:47 >> I can never thank you enough.
- 04:50 Thank housing works enough.
- 04:52 >> It's been so important to me, and
- 04:53 so fulfilling to be able to, you know, help you through all this.
- 04:58 But really, the work has been yours.
- 05:01 Every individual on Earth has universal human rights.
- 05:05 And it is shocking in this day and
- 05:06 age that countries have still found it appropriate to criminalize.
- 05:12 Someone for being who they are.
- 05:14 >> And I'm just a human being.
- 05:16 >> They gave me my life back.
- 05:17 >> And I'm really, really grateful to Housing Works for, for that.
- 05:20 >> We're saving many of their lives.
- 05:22 No question about it.
- 05:24 And we're helping them to save other people's lives.
- 05:27 [MUSIC].
- 05:33 [BLANK_AUDIO].
