Unlike most answers on Clarity, where the experts share their grizzled, hard-earned experience, and seek to guide others to success... I'm not sure there are many of us with the experience to guide or advise you in such a personally challenging and difficult cultural environment.

That said, we may not be able to guide, we can seek to inspire!

The answer you seek is right there, in your own question, your own words. The opportunity to change the world that you're looking for is right in front of you.

The words I mean are these... "My friends/acquaintances have been subject to similar experiences as well."

It's clear to me that though you may feel down and defeated, you are already in a great place to effect change - With those friends and acquaintances you mentioned. You're already in communication with those people, you have a shared bond of common experience, and you want to make a difference. From such small seeds of determination, great change can be affected.

There is a quote, which I am heavily paraphrasing and I cannot attribute properly, that I want to share... "Great leaders create a space for others to succeed"

I want you to focus on one idea... "Creating a possibility space for others"

What I mean by this is to imagine, discover and create ways for the people around you to feel better about life, to create spaces and opportunities for them to contribute to each other.

This might mean organizing people so they can walk around together (assuming safety in numbers, and not an increased risk of harassment). Or a way for people to get together to share meals, or resources in some way. You might seek out experienced members of your community, who can help teach others to be safer, more secure and self-reliant. And you can help to teach others to do what you're doing and make the world a better place for each other.

I don't know the individual challenges you and your community face, but I know who can fix them... You.

And if you want to make a difference in the world as a whole, to inspire and illuminate others? Do everything I just suggested, and write about it. Anonymously if needs be.

I for one would love to read a blog about how you're implementing change in such a challenging and hostile political climate. The world has enough productivity startups, mobile agencies and clever apps for first-world problems - We need something real, to remind us there is more to life than the latest Apple product, or viral video.

You can do it. For yourself, for your community, and for the rest of us who might often take our lives for granted.

This is not a STRATEGY topic... it's 100% your psychology. We all, every one of us, face fear in our lives. We face obstacles and opposition. Its only when you can create an empowering meaning from that opposition that you use it as fuel. When a business fails you choose to look at it as an end, or a beginning. You can look at an economic crash as ruin, or opportunity!

The key is it is up to you to choose the meaning and let Fear Freeze you or Fuel you. time and time again people have chosen to turn FEAR into POWER. There is a science to this. It has to do with taking control of specific elements of your mental and emotional state. It even incorporates the Physical. It is what allowed injured olympic athletes to throw themselves into the fight one more time and win the gold. It allowed men to face opposition and death and overcome and win. It has everything to do with the meaning we give our problems.

I'm not saying the story isn't real. I'm saying you have to choose how to face the reality. A good read: Mankind's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - will give you a new perspective.