Swabhava LGBTQIA+ Support Services

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Updates (2)

Swabhava (estd. 1999) works to provide access to support services for people who are identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, hijra, asexual and other gender and sexuality minorities (LGBTQIA+). Over the years, Swabhava has provided LGBT people access to a wide range of services including health, legal, social support, and others. Some Bangalore-based support groups for LGBT people use our office for meetings and workshops.

As one of Bangalore’s many NGOs working with and exploring intersections between sexuality, gender, health and mental health, ethics, masculinities and more, Swabhava has offered counselling to hundreds of individuals as well as trained hundreds of counsellors, doctors, lawyers, outreach workers, HIV-work NGOs, mainstream development NGOs and so on. We also helped set up the Bangalore Queer Film Festival (2009). We also help organise Pride events, particularly on mental health and also supporting parents of LGBTQIA+ every year in November.

Alongside this, we provide training support on diversity inclusion policies within corporates. We are also involved in action-based research projects covering essential areas such as health and mental health among LGBT people as well as advocacy and awareness of LGBT issues.

Currently, we are raising funds to continue our work against discrimination in the health sector. Swabhava's first project, the SAHAYA Helpline, in its almost two decades of existence has provided counselling services for thousands of LGBT people. We have also collected over the years, a growing list of LGBT-friendly general and mental health professionals, including for HIV and AIDS specialisation.

All of SAHAYA, and Swabhava's work, has been non-funded and dependent on donations. You can help us sustain this work by donating to our cause.

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8th October 2019

Dear Supporters,

Thank you for your love. We have crossed 20 years of functioning in September 2019. As we enter our 21st year, we recommit our energies to keeping support spaces for LGBTQIA+ people alive and functioning with your help. We regularly receive at least 5 to 6 calls every week related to LGBTQIA+ issues. We offer our office space for at least 2 meetings every week, these meetings see a minimum of 30-40 people attend and discuss issues. We have just completed a provisional report of the Healthcare Discrimination study done in collaboration with the Advanced Centre for Women's Studies in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. We are working on producing a final report, in the form of a book, that will record different experiences on discrimination in the healthcare sector. Your support in this venture and keeping this space alive is invaluable.

29th June 2019

Dear All,

Swabhava is entering its 20th year of existence in September 2019. We have been offering support services to LGBTQIA+ people particularly focussing on mental health services. We have just completed a 3 year project on documenting experiences of healthcare discrimination in southern India experienced by these communities. We are currently preparing the report for this project and would need funding support to help influence changes in medical curriculum.