Tanzania Community Empowerment Foundation (TACEF)
Tanzania Community Empowerment Foundation (TACEF) is a Non-Governmental Organization led by female, male and transgender sex workers. It was started as a group in 2013 and officially recommended by kinondoni municipality to serve as a community organization in 2014. TACEF is working to serve the needs of transgender and sex workers, mainly serving to guide and support the advocacy work of its members with a primary focus on basic human rights, health rights, sexual rights regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as entrepreneurship skills and psychological counselling to LGBTI and sex workers experiencing mental disturbance.
TACET hosts the Appreciation for Activists and HRDs in East Africa (AHEA) Awards in recognition and appreciation of outstanding HRDs working to advance gender, LGBTI and sex worker rights in the region.
Since mid-2016, the government has notably increased its repression of LGBTI rights defenders in Tanzania. Such defenders are therefore forced to keep a low profile and generally operate underground. Homophobia is widespread in Tanzania and same-sex relations are criminalised with a penalty of 30 years in prison if found guilty.
