About our project
GAP is a youth center within the association Aids-Hilfe Bonn in Bonn, Germany, for LGBTIQ* youth and young adults. Wanting to show solidarity in response to the influx of refugees, GAP started to work on its inclusiveness in 2017 through the project "GAP Queer Refugees," providing emotional and legal support to LGBTIQ* refugees around Bonn. The project has continuously developed throughout the years and now hosts three regular events at GAP at the moment, making the youth center more welcoming for young queer refugees and people who experience racism and xenomisia.
Why we are raising funds
The LGBTIQ* youth center GAP and the project Queer Refugees receive funding from the municipality and (in)directly from LVR; however, expenses from some of the most important supports LGBTIQ* refugees need, cannot be covered with these public fundings.
While the asylum process is notoriously inhumane, it is even more so for LGBTIQ* refugees. Many have to endure stereotypes and ignorances, and the asylum applications are often therefore rejected. To make sure that our LGBTIQ* clients can be safe from being deported to queermisic countries, we need to engage lawyers, which is quite costly. Additionally, a lot of other important matters and common issues among refugees require funds, including health issues (physical and mental), means to improve living conditions, and transportation, to name a few. These are explained in the “was benötigt wird” section, in the video, and also on our social media.
How much we need
We have a gap of 8.100€ that we need to fill urgently, for the legal aid alone. To cover the whole of their asylum process, we estimate that we need 17.700€ to be safe. To cover other important tasks including improving the living situation of our clients, health care and german materials and classes, etc., we have set up a goal of 32.000 €. You can find below in the “Was benötigt wird” section the amount of each task that we are collecting funds for, where you have the option to direct your donations to specific causes that you feel closest to heart. However, we encourage you to donate directly to our emergency moneypool, so we can fulfill different urgent and important needs more timely. We also especially welcome “dauerspende”, with which we can make better planning of our project.
Team, transparency and accountability
The collected donations are currently managed by Theo (social work student, working in the project since 2021) and Ching (MBA in CSR & NGO Management, working in the project since 2020) at Project Queer Refugees (with administrative support from GAP in Bonn and Trägerin AHB e.V.. The expenses cannot be made readily available due to capacity shortage but are kept track carefully and can be provided upon request. More about our team and beneficiaries are communicated on our instagram page @GAPofColor.