We changed how we get donations. Instead of making people feel sad or sorry, we celebrated trans culture and art with an online store that talked like us, so we could speak up too. We offered unique items designed by different artists, which people purchased symbolically to support the community in getting a house.

Getting donations is always hard, especially for trans people, but selling digital art made it easier.

Colombia is the second country in Latin America with the most cases of homicides against the trans population. The life expectancy of a trans woman is 35 years, the same as in the Middle Ages. 38% of transgender people faced discrimination in the workplace, 28% in accessing education, and 27% in healthcare services, and 73% of transgender people have experienced violence, whether physical, sexual, or psychological, and face a higher risk of suicide which gets worst when lacking a support system.

But some organizations advocate for their rights, like us, “Red Comunitaria Trans”, an NGO that provides support, shelter, legal, psychological, and even healthcare access for the community. However, not even an NGO is safe, we were forced to leave our home, the home for hundreds of thousands of transgender sex workers, gender non-conforming people, transgender victims of the civil war, ex-prisoners, homeless people, and activists who had fought for this place.

This home was a safe place for more than 600 transgender people. We needed to get it back.

- Situation

We were evicted from our home due to pressure from neighbors and the police.

- Brief

We needed to reclaim our safe place to continue working for the transgender community.

- Objectives

Raise our voices and donations to get a new place, in a way that was truthful of who we are and empowered us rather than relayed on pity.

CASATRANS.CO is a website where people can donate and support our cause. It's also a way for us to speak up and stand for what we believe in. We created a virtual house and sold it bit by bit. People could explore different rooms, choose from over 250 illustrated pieces, and buy them to help us get a real home.

Each piece had a story, told in a fun and light-hearted way, just like our community. We wanted to celebrate them and avoid making people feel sorry for us, which often happens with stories like ours. Every room, like the "Hall of Memory," honored our sisters who were killed and everyone affected by violence because of their gender identity.

Even though we had already come out and had a well-established organization which brought together the entire transgender community, the context of the eviction put us in a very difficult situation where we needed to reclaim our home without any means to obtain resources. It was precisely out of nothing that the idea emerged to sell a house we didn't have to get the one we needed.

"We sell the house we don't have to get the one we need."

Raising funds for a social cause is a challenging task, but it's even more difficult for a community like ours, which faces constant rejection and discrimination.

That's why we decided to launch CASATRANS.CO by using the most powerful tool we have: art. Because ultimately, it doesn't matter if someone decides to "come out of the closet" if there's no house that welcomes, offer support or help when they might need it.

Our e-commerce featured 14 different rooms, where we symbolically sold each part of a house: bricks, tiles, doors, faucets, toilets, and more than 250 unique objects. These elements were designed by artists with diverse backgrounds, mostly from the LGBTIQ+ community.

We reopened CasaTrans operation using the most powerful resource: art. A place dedicated to protecting trans rights, where we were able to once again provide health, psychological, and cultural services to over 600 trans women, sex workers, webcam performers, community artists, leaders from social organizations, trans women living on the streets, and trans women in detention.

The E-Commerce achieved an Add to Cart rate of 6%, meaning 6% of the total people who viewed an item on CasaTrans.co added it to their cart. This is comparable to other consumer industries, which vary between 6.4% and 17%. However, the significant difference is that we were not selling any tangible goods or basic necessities. We were actually receiving donations through the symbolic sale of art.

Additionally, the visibility generated by our initiative served as support for the efforts being made to present the Trans bill before the congress of the republic.