UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love
Empowering East African LGBTQI+ and sex worker communities
with funding, capacity strengthnening and collective advocacy
UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love
UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love UHAI EASHRI
Celebrating
Revolutionary Love
Empowering East African LGBTQI+ and sex worker communities
with funding, capacity strengthnening and collective advocacy
ABOUT UHAI EASHRI
Established in 2009, UHAI EASHRI is Africa’s first indigenous activist fund led by and for LGBTQI+ people and sex workers. UHAI provide critical resources directly to activists, organizations and movements across
Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
UHAI rectifies funding disparities through community-led decision-making. By supporting innovative
advocacy, legal challenges, economic empowerment, safe spaces, and equitable health and other social services,
UHAI ensures that those directly facing human rights violations have the agency and voice to lead their own liberation.
UHAI EASHRI USA is a US-based 501(c)3 registered non-profit that is linked to UHAI EASHRI to support resource generation.
Our mission is an unwavering commitment to serve as an innovative, accessible, inclusive, and responsive activist-led fund dedicated to
advancing equality, dignity, and justice for sexual and gender minorities and sex workers across Eastern Africa.
Our values, encapsulated by the Swahili words in our name UHAI (meaning "existence" or "alive"), represent our inviolable commitments to sexual and gender diversity, outrage and love, rights, equality, social justice, excellence, health support, accessibility, radical thought, respect, collaboration, authenticity, and listening. These principles guide our work and interactions with communities and society at large,
driving us toward audacious, courageous, and transformative work--and revolutionary love!
Our Core Stratgies
UHAI's effort is anchored in four pillars:
1)Grant-Making and Enhanced Capacity Strengthening,
2) Movement Building and Pan-African Engagement,
4) Thought Leadership, and Institutional Development and Strengthening, and
4) Knowledge Management.
Each of these pillars strengthens both internal systems and the vibrant, cohesive activists, organizations, and movements we support.
Our Impact
For over 15 years, as Africa's first indgenous activist fund, UHAI has invested over $17 million in over 250 LGBTQI+ and sex worker organizations in seven East African countries. We support LGBTQI+ and sex worker community-led initiatives, from health and legal services to economic empowerment and human rights advocacy—while partnering with Pan-African networks to strengthen our movements.
We also use participatory grant making practices, ensuring decision-making on what and whom we fund is centered in the very communities we support. Our approach not only democratizes the funding process but also enhances our global outreach,
taking risks that traditional donors might shy away from and embracing intersectionality to ensure no one is left behind.
Join Us
We invite you to join the movement for equality in Eastern Africa. Your contribution ensures sexual and gender minorities
and sex worker communities across Eastern Africa receive the support needed to cultivate resilience and effect change.
We can build a world where people live equally and with dignity for all.
UHAI USA is a US-based registered 501(c)3 organization generating funds for UHAI EASHRI to achieve its mission. We host community dialogues and fundraising events, including AfriQ Arts (gala event); linking human rights challenges and successes between East Africa and the United States.
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UHAI US Board Members
Mukami Marete
Mukami Marete
Mukami Marete
Mukami Marete is currently the Executive Director of UHAI EASHRI and serves as the Treasurer for the UHAI USA Board of Directors. Prior to joining UHAI, she worked for the Kenya Human Rights Commission and was actively involved in the sexual and reproductive health rights program, particularly the right to safe and legal abortion and th
Mukami Marete is currently the Executive Director of UHAI EASHRI and serves as the Treasurer for the UHAI USA Board of Directors. Prior to joining UHAI, she worked for the Kenya Human Rights Commission and was actively involved in the sexual and reproductive health rights program, particularly the right to safe and legal abortion and the rights of LGBTIQ people. Mukami also serves on the Boards of the Black Feminist Fund, the Global Philanthropy
Project, the East African Philanthropy Network, and the African Philanthropy Network. She previously served at the Board of Green Peace Africa as well as the Sex Worker Donors Collaborative. She holds an MBA in strategy and a
bachelor’s degree in building Economics and management – both from the
University of Nairobi. She has a postgraduate degree in Human Resource
Management and is a certified public accountant trained by Strathmore University. Mukami is a mother of two and believes that love makes a family. She wants to be able to bring up her African children to thrive even as they exist in the patriarchal, racist, imperialist and sexist world that she finds herself in.
Milap Patel
Mukami Marete
Mukami Marete
Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, Milap Patel has lived in the US since 2009 and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Milap has worked at the intersections of climate policy, global human rights, and economic justice with an overarching commitment to civil society, internationalism, and to our natural world. Milap has a master’s in pu
Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, Milap Patel has lived in the US since 2009 and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Milap has worked at the intersections of climate policy, global human rights, and economic justice with an overarching commitment to civil society, internationalism, and to our natural world. Milap has a master’s in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Development Studies from the University of Sussex, UK.
Kent Klindera
Mukami Marete
Kent Klindera
Kent Klindera is a strategic advisor and leader with over 30 years’ experience in global health, working at the crossroads of HIV and human rights. Currently, he serves UHAI US's Chief Philanthropy Officer (CPO), helping UHAI US increase its visibility and support amongst individual and institutional donors in the Global North. Kent is a
Kent Klindera is a strategic advisor and leader with over 30 years’ experience in global health, working at the crossroads of HIV and human rights. Currently, he serves UHAI US's Chief Philanthropy Officer (CPO), helping UHAI US increase its visibility and support amongst individual and institutional donors in the Global North. Kent is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, as well as a consultant focused on the sustainability of community organizations. Kent's career spans continents, including tenures based in the US, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia; and championing human rights, sexual health, youth, gender, and masculinity programming. Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, USA, Kent holds a Master’s in Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Iowa.
Qwin Mbabazi
Joanne Sandler
Kent Klindera
Qwin Mbabazi is rooted in a passion for people and community. Qwin’s work bridges strategy and lived experience, bringing a dynamic background in grassroots mobilization, multi-operational coordination, and advocacy, with hands-on experience organizing Pride events, queer film festivals, and supporting front-line movements in Uganda and
Qwin Mbabazi is rooted in a passion for people and community. Qwin’s work bridges strategy and lived experience, bringing a dynamic background in grassroots mobilization, multi-operational coordination, and advocacy, with hands-on experience organizing Pride events, queer film festivals, and supporting front-line movements in Uganda and now the New England area/USA.
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Currently serving as as GLAD Law’s Senior Manager of Organizational Culture and Community Partnerships, Qwin spearheads engagements with various constituencies within and outside the LGBTQ+ community across New England, and stewards GLAD Law’s internal culture work, particularly with regard to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Her approach is both thoughtful and action-driven, centering connection, representation, and impact. Qwin holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Makerere University.
Peter Twyman
Joanne Sandler
Joanne Sandler
Peter Twyman is a social impact leader with 30 years of experience working on complex social challenges in the U.S. and globally. He is currently the Deputy Director of Columbia World Projects at Columbia University, a campus-wide effort to support faculty, students, and social entrepreneurs to achieve greater social impact. Peter spent a
Peter Twyman is a social impact leader with 30 years of experience working on complex social challenges in the U.S. and globally. He is currently the Deputy Director of Columbia World Projects at Columbia University, a campus-wide effort to support faculty, students, and social entrepreneurs to achieve greater social impact. Peter spent a decade leading NGOs focused on child welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa, first at Keep a Child Alive and then at Yamba Malawi. He also has more than a decade of experience working on U.S. government-funded global health programs, including 8 years at ICAP Global Health at Columbia, where he managed programs to support ministries of health in numerous African countries to scale HIV treatment and prevention interventions. In addition to UHAI-EASHRI, he serves on the U.S. boards of directors of Yamba Malawi and Friendship Bench. Peter is a graduate of Connecticut College and holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Joanne Sandler
Joanne Sandler
Joanne Sandler
Joanne Sandler has been working to strengthen women’s rights, gender justice and organizational change strategies in the U.S. and transnationally for nearly 40 years. She is a Senior Associate of Gender at Work – a global network of consultants who support organizations to build cultures of equality. Between 2001 and 2010, Joanne was Dep
Joanne Sandler has been working to strengthen women’s rights, gender justice and organizational change strategies in the U.S. and transnationally for nearly 40 years. She is a Senior Associate of Gender at Work – a global network of consultants who support organizations to build cultures of equality. Between 2001 and 2010, Joanne was Deputy Executive Director for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and then on the transition team for the creation of UN Women. She is on the Board of Directors of The Common Counsel Foundation and serves as a member of UN Women's Global Civil Society Advisory Group. Joanne hosts two podcasts: Two Old Bitches and the Gender at Work podcast. She has authored numerous books and articles including Gender at Work: Theory and Practice for 21st Century Organizations (Routledge Press, 2015).
Marc Sokol
Marc Sokol
Marc Sokol
Marc J. Sokol is an expert in aligning organizational talent, values, cultures, strategies, departments and resources for maximum success and delivery on mission. As an independent consultant, Marc brings more than 30 years of global and national nonprofit experience to organizations dedicated to arts and
culture and social justice, especi
Marc J. Sokol is an expert in aligning organizational talent, values, cultures, strategies, departments and resources for maximum success and delivery on mission. As an independent consultant, Marc brings more than 30 years of global and national nonprofit experience to organizations dedicated to arts and
culture and social justice, especially LGBTQI+ rights and gender equality. Marc served at Let’s Breakthrough, Inc. for 15 years as Interim E.D., COO, and CoS, and as Secretary of the Corporation. Other career highlights include serving as VP for Business Development and COO of a spin-off for-profit affiliate of a nonprofit, whole-school reform organization, growing it from $500K to $7M in sales in 5 years, delivering 4,500 training days yearly. Marc also created the nationally replicated Architectural Youth Program, which received numerous awards and multi-year funding from the NEA. As a member of Visual AIDS for the Arts, he co-created and helped produce the first World AIDS Day tribute, Night without Light, in New York City, later globally celebrated. Marc currently serves on the Board of UHAI EASHRI USA, an affiliate of Nairobi, Kenya-based UHAI EASHRI, a feminist, activist, indigenous, LGBTQI+ funder resourcing and supporting African movements. Marc is an enthusiastic, certified practitioner of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs) and holds a master’s in arts administration from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
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