Marang Newsletter April 2026

The 2026 Regional Voice and Choice Summit opened not with formality, but with feeling. Participants were first invited into a deeply emotional and grounding somatic healing session led by House of Ditsie, creating space to arrive not just intellectually, but fully in body, memory, and spirit. This set the tone for a gathering rooted in care, truth, and collective presence.

The opening night marked the official launch of the Marang Fund I-Stories, a powerful archive of lived experiences from across the region. In a moving virtual solidarity address, Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities to the Republic of South Africa, Hon. Steve Letsike, reminded participants that “many LGBTIQ persons today still wake every day to negotiate whether they will be safe, whether their bodies will be respected, and whether their identities will be affirmed.” She urged the room to confront these realities honestly, noting that “if we don’t name it, we risk performing progress rather than building it.” Framing the Summit as both a political and moral intervention, she affirmed that LGBTIQ lives are not marginal to democracy and that the I-Stories stand as “a political archive of courage,” a testament to survival, resistance, and the insistence on dignity. As she powerfully stated, “lived experiences are not a footnote to policy.”

These words were brought to life through live readings of the I-Stories by grantee partners, whose voices carried the weight, vulnerability, and strength of their communities.

Read more stories in the April Newsletter below.