Panel #3

Access to Community and Health Support

The third panel on access to community, health, and legal support initiated a conversation on how COVID-19 changes LGBTQI+ refugees access to community and social and legal support. What are the concerns that arise with COVID-19 as particularly refugees become increasingly cut off from social and legal services? What kind of community support is still there? What kind of health care is provided for LGBTQI+ refugees? What does this mean for trans* who are in need of their hormones and persons with HIV?

Moderator:

Harpreet Kaur Cholia is an independent researcher, lecturer, practitioner and advisor in the field of critical migration studies, feminism, empowerment, anti-racism and anti-discrimination. As the president of the Refugee Council of Hessen, Germany, Cholia has been working for the rights of refugees and their rights to remain in Germany. She has been recently appointed to head of the new and innovative department “Diversity and Democracy” at the social enterprise GFFB in Frankfurt am Main, where she is working on anti-racism, feminist and diversity in the framework of democracy building. Cholia is also a psycho-social counsellor at “Response. Hessen” at the Education Centre Anne Frank in Frankfurt. There she provides one to one counselling to victims of right-wing and racist violence.

Panelists:

Ahmed Awadalla is an activist, educator, psychosocial worker and writer from Egypt. Ahmed holds a degree in pharmaceutical sciences. For the last decade, their work focuses on the intersections between health, sexuality, and migration. Ahmed is currently working at Berliner Aids-Hilfe and Checkpoint BLN providing counseling and information on HIV/AIDS and sexual health. He is also engaged in anti-racist activism, particularly from a queer refugees perspective. Their writing has been featured in several platforms and can also be accessed on their blog Rebel with A Cause.

Mira is a Syrian LGBTQ activist, a project worker at The Vlsp* project Stuttgart and a peer counselor at the LGBTIQ  network of Baden-Württemberg.