Out of the closet and beyond the ghetto

Pioneering is a term we use pretty widely to describe innovative social entrepreneurs; on our first day of visits here in Kolkata we met an organisation that really deserves and lives the ‘pioneering’ tag in the purest and most impressive sense.

Sappho campaigns for and supports lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual woman. They do this in an Indian setting which is incredibly tough: homosexuality is to all intents and purposes illegal (the horribly conservative catch-all law 377 bans ‘unnatural acts’); the founders use pseudonyms to protect their identities; there is no sign over the Sappho office door for fear of reprisals; and when their helpline was launched 99% of calls for the first three months were abusive.

Against this depressing context our visit will be remembered for meeting a team of true ‘pioneers’, revolutionaries even, that we found hugely inspiring. They’re campaigning for rights were no precedent exists, and creating a ‘space’ and a voice for literally millions of women in this vast country who, forever, have been silent and unable to live their lives naturally. For me, this visit was a lesson in leadership, passion, direction, teamwork, and strategy when you face exclusion. Our learning was pretty extreme - how to be a start-up in a sector that hasn’t even yet started, how to build support and funds in a world that doesn’t want to recognise the issue you’re fighting against, and how to channel a personal sense of injustice into an effective leadership force.

My abiding memory will be a quote from one of the co-founders which left me with a new understanding of what it means to be brave and to feel truly part of a movement. She was describing the risks she was exposed to because of her work: ‘I don’t care anymore if they put in prison, all the friends of Sappho will come down and bang on the jail.’ To me that captured both the disturbing reality the Sappho women work within, and the spirit and strength with which they fight for their cause.