said whatever comes my way will just face it). Having heard about the raid, she had asked for more information about GALZ from a friend whose relative worked at the organisation. It has to be noted that membership recruitment is often determined by the extent to which the organisation puts out information out there. This is generally a challenge as much of what gets to the audience through the mainstream media is usually negative and derogatory. Hardly do news reporters put across neutral or positive information about the organisation. Though the organisation has made inroads in recruiting new and younger members, the same cannot be said of older gay men and women. Reaching out As a consequence of the raids and the fear instilled among the members, it has been difficult to mobilise them to attend some social or educational functions. Sometimes members are invited for a focus group discussion to evaluate some on-going programs but a few respond, hence it has become difficult for GALZ to evaluate the effectiveness of some services offered to members. The focus group meeting for this evaluation had to be rescheduled several times and the second one could not be conducted. In order to reach out to LGBTI people, ‘buddy groups’ have been organised to cater for members who cannot easily congregate at the Centre due to safety and security fears. Despite the efforts that have been made to reach out to members who are 29 An Assessment of the impact of state sanctioned and unsanctioned raids on GALZ premises and gatherings