Written by Joseph K (He/Him)
Today marks exactly seven years since I took a stand for my community. On this day, as an LGBTIQ+ refugee who had fled persecution from my country, and after my own family excommunicated me because of my sexual orientation, I began advocating for more than 300 LGBTIQ+ refugees from Kakuma Refugee Camp: people who had endured violence, threats, and suffering for decades, simply for being who they are.
On December 11, 2018
fear filled the air,
hate wrote death threats on walls,
and even places meant for protection
could not keep us safe.
Yet we stood.
Twenty-one were moved first —
injured bodies, trembling spirits —
to receive medication, shelter,
and a chance at life beyond the camp.
That moment opened the path
to mass resettlement,
to survival beyond Kakuma.
I was the chairman.
So I became the target.
I paid with my body —
my hand, my index finger, gone.
When I see the scars,
my memory runs back to that day,
to pain that carried purpose,
to sacrifice that saved lives.
Three hundred souls
pulled back from violence.
Three hundred futures
no longer written in fear.
Today Joseph lives in Nairobi: alive, displaced, homeless and unbroken.
“If these words reach you, I humbly ask for support for safe shelter, for dignity, and for the chance to celebrate Christmas not on the streets, but in safety and peace.” These scars are my testimony. They tell the world that courage has a cost and that love, even in exile can rescue hundreds.
Anyone who wants to help Joseph is welcome to contact me, and we can arrange for help to be sent directly to him. His immediate need is for $100 AUS, which would see him get shelter into the New Year, plus an asthma inhaler.
This blog ©2025 Geoff Allshorn. All rights hereby returned to the poet.
I show my respect for Elders past and present and acknowledge the Wurundjeri-Willam people, the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which this blog was prepared.