After an intense week-long Peer Review Workshop these peer reviewers from 7 southern African countries have made their recommendations for funding to our board of trustees.

The latest edition of UMUNTU, our bulletin in black and white for friends and funders of the Other Foundation is out and proud.

African Traditional Culture, Religion and Homophobia: A webinar in collaboration with Mark Gevisser, is now available to watch.

Watch

Our new publication, Roots, highlights the role that the involvement of parents and families can play in the advocacy for LGBTI equality and freedom in our region.

As we neared the end of the first five years of the Other Foundation’s operation, we commissioned an external evaluation of the Foundation’s programmes. We are happy to share with you the summary report from the review process.

The first ever Global Equality Fund (GEF) Stakeholders Workshop was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, convened by the DRL and co-hosted by the Other Foundation and Hilton Hotels. Under the theme of “Local Reach, Global Impact” leaders in LGBTI activism gathered for a week of deep engagement and purposeful deliberation, learning and collaboration at a global scale.

Under Wraps: A survey of public attitudes to homosexuality and gender non-conformity in Malawi, for the first time provides statistically sound, nationally representative data about what Malawians think and feel about homosexual and bisexual women and men, and transgender and intersex people. There are some surprising findings.

Given South Africa’s human rights based Constitution that is referenced in the country’s company law and the successes of compliance and incentive based Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) programmes, Get Real explores whether a similar approach for LGBTIeconomic empowerment would be realistic in South Africa.

Over four days, about 200 participants from across southern Africa and abroad convened at the Cradle of Humankind for kopano – Expanding space for LGBTI activsim in southern Africa. This kopano was geared towards evolving the strategies used by LGBTI activist groups for greater depth and scale of impact, and renew collective energy amongst LGBTI activist organizations and allies.

Relive kopano - Expanding space for LGBTI activism

Stabanisation is a body of narratives about the lived experiences within the African faith landscape of its queer authors, interwoven into a call for theology that is life-affirming, and a remembrance of our communal identity.

“I learnt new ways to dialogue with the church as we have struggled before” ~ Discussant at Breaking Through the Backlash.
Videos from all the public events and plenary sessions at Breaking Through the Backlash: Transformative encounters between LGBTI people and the churches in Africa are now available to watch.

Relive Breaking Through the Backlash

Taking a Stand the powerful address on homophobia and the churches in Africa by renowned anti-apartheid leader, theologian, and author, Prof. Allan Boesak at our convening, Breaking through the Backlash: Transformative Encounters Between LGBTI People and Churches in Africa, is now available to download.

We are thrilled to announce that ‘As You Like It’, the second edition of our Gerald Kraak Anthology of African perspectives on gender, social justice, and sexuality, has won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for an anthology.

Read the announcement

A public debate is raging about how churches can spread homophobic hatred, or promote respect and inclusion based on the equal dignity of every person. Our new report, Silent no longer!, examines the types of engagement churches have with homosexual men and women, and transgender and intersex people in southern Africa.

Read the report

There is a general belief that African people are deeply homophobic and unaccepting of gender diversities. But what does the African public really think? The truth is that we don’t really know because hardly any work has been done to gather and analyze the views of the public in a structured way in Africa. Until now.

Homophobia has become a site of painful struggle in the churches, in much the same way as slavery, racism and sexism was in the past. When faith does violence, a new reflection paper by African Christian scholars, reflects on how churches can become liberating rather than oppressive, redemptive rather than violent towards homosexual women and men, and transgender and intersex people in Africa.

Read the report

All ten country reports in our Canaries In The Coal Mines studies are now available. What is the state of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex organizing and social inclusion, in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe?

Find out

Everyone should be free to live a safe and dignified life, have a family and make their contribution to society. The Other Foundation works to change the views, practices and institutions that prevent people – because of who they are or who they love – from being able to do that in southern Africa. We gather support for those who are working to protect and advance the rights, wellbeing and social inclusion of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities – and we give support in a smart way that helps groups to work better for lasting change.

Our Mission

The Other Foundation is an African trust dedicated to advancing human rights in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Our primary purpose is to expand resources available to defend and advance the rights and well-being of LGBTI people in the Southern African region. We do this by working both as a grant-maker and a fundraiser. Read our full mission statement here. The Atlantic Philanthropies has provided a generous start-up grant over a five-year period to cover all operational costs, subject to the Foundation being able to raise additional funds from other sources. More information about how we started can be found here.

Our Grant-Making

The Foundation is pleased to announce the outcomes of its inaugural round of grant making. The Foundation allocated 32 grants, totaling around ZAR3.1 million, for work that will advance the rights and improve the well-being of LGBTI people in Southern Africa. Organisations and individuals were given grants ranging from ZAR10,000 to ZAR500,000. Click here to see a full list of grants that were allocated. The Other Foundation wanted its first grant making initiative to be a truly transparent and participatory process. Rather than consider grant proposals entirely on its own, the foundation’s board asked the public to nominate a panel of peer reviewers to help review and assess grant applications. The 12 peer reviewers chosen formed a diverse group from six countries in southern Africa. They worked in four teams, each facilitated by a board member, to decide which projects to recommend for funding. This gave meaningful expression to the identity of The Other Foundation as an LGBTI community foundation. Click here to see who the peer reviewers were in the grant making process.Click here to see a report about the development, implementation, and outcomes of this unique grant making process. The report will be of interest to foundations and philanthropists interested in more accountable and transparent ways of making grants.

Our Fundraising

The funds for the pilot grant-making initiative have come from personal gifts from 18 individual donors who visited South Africa early in 2014 to find out more about the amazing work that activists are doing to defend and advance the rights of LGBTI people in Southern Africa. The Atlantic Philanthropies matched the funds raised from this donor tour, providing The Other Foundation with close to ZAR4 million to give out as small grants to individuals and organisations across Southern Africa. A range of fundraising initiatives were launched in 2014. All funds that are raised will go to programming and grant-making as our operational costs are fully covered by the Atlantic Philanthropies for the next five years.

Your Questions

We would love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments. Answers to some frequently asked questions about The Other Foundation are answered here. Please contact us either by email, phone, or letter. Details of how to do that are on our Contact Us page.

Alan Msosa

Post-doctoral fellow at the University of York (Britain) and holder of an inter-disciplinary PhD in human rights at the University of Essex (Britain). A former programme manager in the Office of the Ombudsman (Malawi).

Bella Matambanadzo

Print, radio and television journalist with a strong commitment to amplifying the concerns of women. Media freedom activist.

Xhanti Payi

Economist, policy researcher, and entrepreneur with a corporate and investment banking background. Print media columnist on social and economic development issues.

Nalumino Likwasi

Project management and programming specialist with a background in women’s human rights, as well as those of sexual minorities. Co-founder of the Women’s Alliance for Equality.

Alice Mogwe

Human rights activist with a legal background. Active in church groups that promote greater understanding of diversity and human rights in a multi-cultural context.

Miguel de Brito

Mozambican human rights activist. Instrumental in setting up Mozambique’s leading LGBTI organisation. Democracy and governance specialist with a focus on electoral systems.

Paula Sebastião

Co-founder of Arquivo de Identidade Angolano (the Angolan Identity Archive). Technical advisor on projects working to overcome stigma and discrimination in the provision of health services.

Neville Gabriel

African philanthropy development practitioner, experienced grant maker, economic justice activist, and civil society strategist with a track record in establishing successful organisations. Chief executive officer of The Other Foundation.

Contact Us

The Other Foundation is grateful for the support it has received from

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