Nepal’s biggest LGBT rights organization, Blue Diamond Society (BDS), is battling against low morale after wages have not been paid for seven months.
Founded in 2001, BDS successfully lobbied the government for recognition of a third gender and recently got LGBTI issues on the school curriculum.
It has achieved significant gains for LGBTI rights in the country but now their work is being thwarted by a government office.
The District Administration Office has sat on the charities’ license renewal so that funding from international bodies, including the Global Fund, cannot be distributed to the organization, which employs 750 staff and has 42 offices across the country.
‘It’s demoralizing,’ Saurav Jung Thapa, technical advisor to the HIV prevention program, told Gay Star News on a visit to their basic office in Kathmandu.
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