This Toronto Pride ambassador is an 2SLGBTQ+ refugee. Now he’s helping other newcomers make their way

Patrick King Mwesigye says he was humbled when Toronto Pride made him the newcomer ambassador for this year’s festival — the Ugandan refugee and advocate says it’s a milestone in a long journey. 

“Where I come from, we do not have the opportunity, not even to gather two or three people, to talk about anything LGBTQ,” he told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Friday. 

Mwesigye, the founder of Human Rights International says the recognition at this weekend’s festival feels like a celebration of the work he and his colleagues at the grassroots organization do to support Black 2SLGBTQ+ refugees in Toronto and across Ontario, “and also the constant call we’ve been making to Pride Toronto to make Pride more diverse.”

Mwesigye came to Toronto in 2022 from Uganda, where homosexuality is now punishable by life in prison — or in some cases, death.

There, he said, he openly advocated for queer rights there, co-founding a group supporting trans women. But he was attacked several times and imprisoned for his work before fleeing persecution, he said.

“You’re not safe. You don’t know what will happen to you at any given point,” he said. When he confirmed he was going to make it to Canada, he was excited to be headed to safety.

“I knew that it was going to be a safe haven, a smooth landing,” Mwesigye said. “But it was different.”

A conviction to help other Black refugees

Among the influx of African refugees who arrived in Toronto between 2021 and 2023, overwhelming the city’s shelter system, Mwesigye says he spent his first three nights sleeping on the street before living in a shelter on Peter Street for 10 months. 

Despite his training as a public health professional and social worker back home, Mwesigye said it was difficult for him to find work with his foreign credentials. When he finally found housing, he said he felt a conviction to help others who had been in similar situations, to make their transitions easier. 

“Lots of African refugees were just right on the streets, nowhere to stay,” Mwesigye said, pointing to the refugee crisis Toronto faced in 2023. “And I felt like, OK, we need to do something, right? We need, possibly, services that are more aligned to us.”

WATCH | African refugees faced racism, homelessness, in GTA, report finds:

That’s when he recruited other Black African community leaders, refugees and newcomers to found Hope for Refugees International (HRI).

‘Without HRI, I wouldn’t have known what to do’

HRI helps Black 2SLGBTQ+ refugees in Toronto and across Ontario with everything from getting a Presto card to finding shelter to negotiating and signing a lease. The aim is “helping them navigate services, empowering and supporting them to live quality lives with equity, dignity, and opportunities to realize their full potential,” Mwesigye said.

The organization has already helped over 1,600 refugees, asylum seekers and newcomers, according to the Pride Toronto website. That includes Maisha Tanko, who left Ghana last year fearing persecution for her sexuality.

Initially coming to Mississauga, Tanko said she moved to transitional housing in Toronto, where she met Mwesigye and discovered HRI.

HRI helped her find work and make her way through the refugee process, she said, while Mwesigye personally helped her figure out how to get her high school diploma after she told him she wanted to be a nurse.

“Sometimes I call him when I feel overwhelmed and I find difficulties. And he keeps giving me the encouragement,” Tanko said. “Without HRI, I wouldn’t have known what to do or where to go.”

Tanko said she considers Mwesigye her role model, and now volunteers with HRI to help others like herself, just as he does.