Hi everyone, we hope you had a very happy St David's Day (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus)! Here is an update on what we were up to in February:

A total of £3,319 donations were received this month, and we spent £2,015! There was an uptick in emergency grants due to some losses in the community and the increase in living costs. We were also able to help one of our service users move into their very own flat, and `they are now no longer in homelessness services!

We ran a hugely successful campaign for Theo, who was in need of funds to continue to pay for living costs after the tragic passing of their partner Iggy earlier in the month. Over £4000 was raised, absolutely flying past the initial goal of £2138, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who was able to donate and help Theo in an incredibly difficult time.

A college teacher was found using transphobic language and misgendering students, so we made a complaint. As a result, an apology was issued to all affected students, they have issued tutorials to the staff and students about the importance of respecting trans people, and they plan to update their LGBTQ+ training.

The Queer Emporium are now selling our “Trans In Wales?” stickers, of which all funds go to help us keep things running here. Also, near the end of the month, they hosted The Queer Gala as a fundraiser for us. We are extremely thankful for the community's and The Queer Emporium’s support to help provide funds so we can continue our work. We all had a wonderful time and everyone looked amazing!

Also, thanks to the decrease in COVID cases after the December/January spike we experienced here in Wales, we have finally been able to host our in person meetups again. They continue to be a success and we are always delighted to see everyone’s faces!

There have also been some exciting new developments happening in the background:

We have started the ball rolling on starting the Activist Collective, which is a new development that will be built by the community at large. It’s still taking shape and nothing is yet set in stone, but we hope to use it for things like sharing paid opportunities, radical political education and training.

We have also managed to bring on some more volunteers to the team! This will help us spread our workload so we can work more efficiently (and give the existing folks a bit of rest) and hopefully bring some new ideas to the table. We are very excited to have them on board!

We look forward to next month and sharing with you what’s been going on! Thank you so much for your support, and stay safe!

Trans Aid Cymru