Powell has held director-level positions at the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival and the YMCA . He worked as a director at Dignitas International , a Toronto-based medical and research charity organization dedicated to improving access to lifesaving treatment and care for HIV , TB and related diseases in resource-limited settings . From approximately 2010 to 2016 he was the director of development and outreach at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network , Canada 's leading advocacy organization working on the legal and human rights issues raised by HIV and AIDS . in November 2016 he started as the executive director of the Rainbow Railroad , a nonprofit organization that helps LGBT refugees and asylum seekers escape life-threatening situations because of their gender identity and sexuality . Rainbow Railroad is named in homage to the United States ’ 1800 ’s Underground Railroad to help escaping African-American slaves get to free states , Canada and Nova Scotia with the aid of sympathetic abolitionists and allies . The clients are helped to “ escape from state-enabled violence , murder or persecution in their home countries ” , usually from the Caribbean , Africa , and Middle East , and relocated to Europe or North America . As of 2019 , seventy countries criminalize homosexuality , with eleven imposing a death penalty for being gay . Rainbow Railroad ’s chair of the board of directors Michael Battista stated Powell was an ideal fit being Jamaican and a gay man with “ very strong fundraising and development experience , work in the LGBT community , and then international advocacy with the HIV/AIDS legal network ” . In 2017 , reports of gay men being hunted and tortured in Chechnya compelled the group to seek funds and support to rescue the victims , Powell traveled to the area
Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival
Inside Out Film and Video Festival
Kimahli Powell