“Homeless and humiliated, they do not know who to turn to…”
Guru Kala
Transgender people are considered to be the downtrodden individuals of the society and are thought to be used as a means of entertainment only. They are pushed out of their homes at an early age because their families are embarrassed to be associated with them.
Homeless and humiliated, they do not know who to turn to and some of them become sex workers. They can’t even travel in public transport without the fear of being ridiculed’, says Guru Kala.
“…within my community I had temper issues and could not control my anger“
Haji Kiran
‘I was known as the badtameez Khawaja Sira (ill-mannered transgender) within my community I had temper issues and could not control my anger. I would get into fights regularly/, said Kiran. Haji Kiran belongs to the transgender community and lives in Dhok Kala Khan Mohallah, Rawalpindi.
‘I first met the Vision team when I had gone to Guru Kala’s house. They were imparting training and I immediately liked them as the discussion was very informative. During the first ten minutes of the training, my knowledge substantively increased’, recalls the 47 year old Kiran.
“VISION has helped me a lot to make important decisions, one of which was to bring my identity in-front of the whole world”
Sara
My name is Sara. I am from Multan and I have worked as a Youth Council member in Vision for one year. I am working together in another organization & doing functions.
During this whole year, I have travelled many times to Islamabad and Murree for trainings and workshops. I was part of a lot of trainings those days. I lacked the confidence which slowly came into me. I am not well educated but I have learned a lot from those trainings. I’ve learnt about SRHR, Safety and Security. I’ve also learnt about what STI’s are and how to avoid them. My fellow Youth Council members helped me a lot. I couldn’t even speak in front of the people, but after attending the workshops & trainings, I became confident.
I’ve also conducted SRHR session and everyone praised me. I was selected for a visit to the United States because of my work but unfortunately, I missed the interview, which I regret, but I’m glad that at least I’ve gone that far in the selection process.
Today I live in a full-fledged sect (Firqa). In my life, VISION has helped me a lot to make important decisions, one of which was to bring my identity in-front of the whole world. So I came to the whole sect.
While working with VISION I had laid the foundation of where I am working now, and today I am so happy to thank VISION and AFY for inspiring me with such courage and passion.
“…if the bond between a Guru and Cheela remains strong then everything will turn out to be okay“
Sana
My name is Sana. I live in Multan and I left my home long time. I have been living with my guru for a long time. Recently I got my own home and made my own Deera. If we don’t give money to our Guru he/s would scold us & if he/s got angrier then he/s would completely sideline us and boycott us. I use to think bad about my Guru but didn’t say anything.
One day I sat in one of the sessions of VISION, they told us that if the bond between a Guru and Cheela remains strong then everything will turn out to be okay.
After that, I saw a drama act performed by the VISION team and I started crying that when everyone leaves the Guru then the Guru has to suffer the most.
I do get worried because of the behavior of my Guru but now I have empathy towards my Guru because one day I’ll be a Guru too and I also tell my Cheela that if the bond between a guru and a Cheela remains strong then everything will be alright.
Thank you VISION
“…if I get sick all the people would run away from me, even my friends will also run away from me. Therefore, prevention is better than crying later”
Tehreema
My name is Tehreema and I live in Multan. I do functions and sex work. Our place is being visited by many customers, it is our mean of earning. Team VISION came to us once and they told us about what precautionary measures to be taken while having sex. They also discussed the complications of doing sex without precaution.
The team told us about the sexually transmitted diseases. They give us knowledge that if we will do sex without using condom, then we can suffer from HIV/AIDS. We were informed that we should keep our area clean and hygiene.
Also we were told that free of cost condoms are available at civil hospitals. When I knew about the diseases, I got afraid, because we didn’t use any safety precautions before. Now change has come within me from inside. One male offered me 3000 rupees but he refused to use a condom so I said no to him clearly.
Because if I get sick all the people would run away from me, even my friends will also run away from me. Therefore, prevention is better than crying later.
Now I teach other transgenders also to take safety precautions.