Readers’ donations set free a lesbian couple in Cameroon
Fleur and Wanda are two of 12 innocent prisoners Project Not Alone aims to liberate
By Steeves Winner
Donations from readers of Erasing 76 Crimes have freed a lesbian couple who had been imprisoned in Cameroon on homosexuality charges for almost eight months.
The women are two of 12 innocent victims of African homophobia that this site’s Project Not Alone seeks to set free this year.
Fleur and Wanda (pseudonyms) were convicted last fall and sentenced to six months in prison. They were eligible for release March 30, but remained in Cameroon’s Bertoua Prison because they could not pay fines totaling 592,000 CFA francs (about US $1,023) [Update: US $1,059, including transportation and prison admission charges].
Readers’ donations paid their fines, which allowed them to walk free on Monday, May 26.
To set free all 12 of the LGBTQ prisoners in Cameroon and Nigeria, this year’s financial goal is $12,861. So far, readers have donated $1,625.
Please donate so we can free the remaining 10 innocent prisoners. None of them has been convicted of anything other than homosexual activity.
Arrested in September 2024 on charges of homosexuality, the two women were reported to the police by Fleur’s mother. They were sentenced to six months in prison based on the evidence found on their phones (sex messages and videos).
Fleur, 32, is a trained nurse, and Wanda, 33, is a hairdresser. Both have been unemployed since their release.
Currently staying with one of their friends, the two women hope to resume their activities with the aim of becoming independent through income-generating activities.
“I thank you for all your support,” Fleur said, who calls Bertoua Prison a “cave”. “I will never cease to be grateful to you for getting us out of the cave where my friend and I were regularly physically and psychologically abused.”
After they regain income-producing jobs, the couple hopes to raise enough money to leave Cameroon.
“We want to leave this country to settle somewhere else where we will be free to live, free to love, free to flourish, free to express ourselves even if we know that it is a task that seems difficult,” Fleur said.
In the meantime, Wanda said, “We want to open a hair salon and for that we will need support — 350,000 FCFA. My girlfriend, a trained nurse, will look for a job in clinics again. We remain optimistic about saving money and financing our trip.”
Project Not Alone is a program of the non-profit St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation and its Erasing 76 Crimes news site. U.S. tax-deductible donations to Project Not Alone 2025 may be made via:
- PayPal
- GoFundMe
- SpotFund
- Alternatively, you could send a check to St. Paul’s Foundation, 5517 Paseo del Lago East Unit 1B, Laguna Woods CA 92637 USA. Please write “Project Not Alone” on the memo line.
Steeves Winner, the author of this article, is an activist and journalist in Cameroon who writes under a pseudonym. Contact him at steeves.w@yahoo.com.
