Transgender Day of Visibility 2022 in Kenya - Jinsiangu member messages to the world

Transcend ~ “ To be or go beyond the limits of something. “ ~

To commemorate this year’s theme - Transcendence, it was important to highlight Transgender people as more than just our gender identities. However, due to myths and misconceptions about us, mainly fueled by ignorance about our lived realities, society tends to see us in a one-dimensional way that does not go beyond our gender. Through a series of stories shared by various community members, we get to see transgender people in all their diversity - as artists, business people, students, parents and much much more. You can follow the stories here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLncXvyReRipLkn8yRX2nZpF7l5oKKGhdB

We had a fun day of activities commemorating #transvisibility_ke_2022 . From a game of round chairs, transgender trivia to acquaint ourselves with trans* history , music and dance to karaoke and celebrating two birthdays all in one day.

Community Members Playing a game of Trivia

Birthday Celebration for two Jinsiangu community members

Jinsiangu refugee community partners Kats & Kay's posing for a photo on TDOV 2022

We took this day to recognize and celebrate active transgender community members who have been champions of advocacy over the years and pillars of support for the community. Gifting them was among the few ways of giving back to them as a community.

Jinsiangu Community member receiving a gift from the Deputy Director at Jinsiangu

Among the community individuals celebrated, we had the pleasure of hosting one of the founders of Jinsiangu during the celebrations , showcasing the realization of the dream Jinsiangu was to be in the initial years of founding.

Jinsiangu founding member (left) , current Jinsiangu director (center), Jinsiangu mental health co-ordinator (right)

This celebration also saw the debut of our first film project through our newly constructed film & sound production studio, mainly run by community members skilled in different areas of editing, scripting, sound engineering among other skill-sets. Earlier this year we hosted a training intensive in film production. This made possible after acquiring the necessary film & sound equipment through support from our partner ASTREA Foundation to enable us share and tell our own stories uniquely. It was important to equip the community with the right skills to be able to run a full production studio, as this strengthens our capacity for advocacy that leads to creations such as our first project under transgender visibility day in 2022.