“I am Suleiman Ssenyonjo – born in Buikwe district, Uganda, but I have lived most of my life on the islands of Kalangala. I wear many hats, but I proudly identify myself as a human rights advocate for the people of the islands.”
“Growing up on the islands, I witnessed the island’s unique lifestyle challenges – alcohol and sexual abuse, gender-based violence (GBV) and an alarming school dropout rate. The people of the islands did not have access to basic social services, from health care to security, to justice, and so I felt determined to devote my career to helping address some of these challenges.”
“After training with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiatives, I signed on as a paralegal and started to help victims of GBV and other abuses to access justice, by linking them up with legal service providers on the islands to pick up their cases. Soon, I became the go-to human rights campaigner and advocate on the island, and I linked up with other human rights defenders (HRDs) on the mainland to collaborate and become even more effective in this work.”
“In 2013, DefendDefenders invited me to the official launch of the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders – Uganda (NCHRD-U), which was the first such umbrella organisation for all HRDs in Uganda. I attended the launch and returned to Kalangala even more motivated to pursue my human rights work.”
“In 2015, a colleague and I established the Kalangala Human Rights Defenders Network (KHRD) to advocate for and defend the rights of HRDs. That same year, there was a government directive on illegal fishing on the lakes, and the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) were deployed to this task. We then started hearing reports of abusive conduct by the soldiers policing the waters. As a predominantly fishing community, Kalangala suffered the worst abuses – illegal confiscation of their fishing nets, arrests of fishermen without due process and progressive undermining of the residents’ livelihood.”
“In response, the KHRD pushed back, informing the fishing community about their rights and how to assert them, as well as seeking legal redress for those whose rights were abused by the soldiers. The UPDF then started to threaten some of our most vocal advocates. Three HRDs were arrested and beaten, and when they were released, they reached out to us (KHRD) for protection support, and we in turn approached DefendDefenders, who were able to relocate them from the island to the mainland in Masaka, where they stayed for a while.”
“In addition to supporting recommended HRDs, DefendDefenders extended significant organisational support to KHRD. Firstly, they trained us in digital and physical security, enabling us to have sufficient precautions in place as we moved to support others. Over the years, DefendDefenders has supported us with setting up our office, acquiring office equipment – a laptop computer, security lights and HP laser jet printer. Having our own printer has helped because before, we suffered a lot of information leakages when using commercial printers. But now we can do the printing ourselves.”
“So, whenever we are in need, DefendDefenders is readily available to support. Most recently, we had trouble with our landlord who was uncomfortable with our advocacy work and evicted us (KHRD) from our office premises. Once again, DefendDefenders was at hand to help – they supported our relocation with 2 years’ worth of rent. The advocacy and sustained sensitization work we do as KHRD is bearing fruit. Now the residents are more aware of their rights. There is better access to legal services, with more courts to be found in Kalangala. All this was achieved because over the years citizens have been empowered to demand more and better social services, with the support of partners like DefendDefenders. So, I cannot thank DefendDefenders, and particularly Hassan Shire, enough.”