Evacuate Dominic from Ghana Appeal
Donation protected
To be frank from the outset, I am submitting this campaign as a final resort, a last ditch attempt and with enormous embarrassment. All previous efforts to resolve my situation have failed and it is causing me a lot of distress and shame to be making this appeal now. Any support, no matter how small, would be hugely appreciated and, collectively, could save me and help me get back to England....
....Right now, I am stranded in Ghana. The company that sent me here in 2015 ran into difficulties that resulted in my being made unemployed in West Africa after just four months. In retrospect, I probably at that time could have returned to the UK, but I was assured by so many here that job prospects were good, so I made the decision to stay and seek further employment. Moreover, I had started a personal relationship (that is still solid today, thankfully) and felt sure that my decision was the correct one. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but rarely helpful in real-time!
I managed to survive for several months during which I applied for countless jobs both here and elsewhere in West Africa, the continent as a whole and internationally. With zero success or even responses, my limited savings were soon spent. By the end of last year, I was only able to eat thanks to the kindness and generosity of my parents and two friends in the UK that between them have been able to send me some cash. However, none of them has sufficient resources to fund an evacuation.
Then out of the blue in December 2016, I was invited to consult for a start-up manufacturing project and things started to look very promising. Until April when the company that had engaged me suddenly pulled out, left Ghana, withdrew all funding and totally abandoned me here with no income, unpaid fees and other dissatisfied parties to whom money was owed. I was plunged back to where I was a few months previously, only in a worse situation, with the debts I had inherited from them and no access to money whatsoever.
In the last 20 or so weeks since I became stranded, my partner and I have only be able to eat through the kindness of family and local friends. But the seriousness of my situation extends beyond just food. My savings ran out months ago and I am now in a desperate position.
At this point, you will be asking yourself "why doesn't he just go to the embassy and come home?" Well, if it were a matter of air-tickets perhaps that would be the solution, or at least a few months ago probably would have been. However, there are issues that now make such a simple plan an impossible one without a much higher cost attached.
I can no longer replace the prescriptions I require and my health is deteriorating noticeably. In particular, the diabetes that I was diagnosed with shortly before coming to Ghana has gone two years without any treatment or medication - I feel in myself that this is now becoming a serious problem. In the last two years I have also developed rheumatoid arthritis and having succumbed to malaria several times with its inevitable toll especially on ones liver, it is safe to say that my health is in a pretty poor state now. And I am anxious to repair it before any permanent damage is done.
As well as being unable to cover such expenses as electricity, communication and gas for cooking, I am very behind with my rent and the landlord (understandably) has run out of patience. I live within a compound so it would be impossible (as well as morally wrong) to leave here without paying what I owe. And even if I could, the system here would ensure I was detained at the airport for trying to leave with unpaid bills.
In addition, due to being involved with two companies both of whom for one reason or another pulled out after short periods of time, I am left here without a work or residency permit and a visa that expired 18 months ago. I am for all intents and purposes an illegal immigrant and the fine I need to pay before being allowed to exit the country is now very large - and growing by the week, of course. Were I to attempt to leave the country I would be arrested and imprisoned immediately. I am keen to avoid even seeing the inside of a Ghanaian prison much less spend months "residing" in one.
Being without a residency permit also prevents me from being considered for any local employment. I am very much trapped here now - unable to earn money, unable to borrow any, unable to leave and unable to eat, survive or seek medical attention.
I am therefore trying to raise the funds I need to evacuate myself and my partner back to the UK where I can attend to my health and get well. I need to start over and find a job, rebuild my life and rejoin society, my family and friends again.
In a nutshell, I need to raise sufficient money if possible to pay the fine to the Immigration Department (who I know now have my name on their list and an alert for me at the borders) - this alone is over £500. I need to clear the arrears in my rent as well as keeping it up to date until I can actually physically leave Ghana (it will take a few weeks to reclaim my passport etc) - this amounts to £800. Exit and visitor visas, airfares etc will require some £1200+/-, and I need to just survive the next few weeks so as to be able to get home alive rather than in a box.
Needless to say, after the last few months and the current consequences as a result, I am keen to leave here as quickly as possible. So I am taking this first opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to all and any of you that can find it in their capacity to assist me in getting out of the hole I am in and giving me a small helping hand up again.
I appreciate that not everybody will be able to help me or even want to. I understand this completely, but I thank you for even reading this far, considering my request and for your friendship. To those that do consent to assist me, I am truly grateful. I assure you all that when I am back to good health and working again, if there is ever anything I can ever do to assist you (regardless of this appeal and its possible outcome) you can count on me to do my very best.
Finally, I have no idea what happens after I submit this! I assume it will generate some kind of link to Facebook, for example, and that I will need to publish it there and/or elsewhere. As well as any donantion you can offer, if I may make one last request, it would be that you kindly "share" and "forward" this to your network, friends and contacts (as opposed to just "Liking" it). I believe such campaigns and their success depend on as much coverage, exposure and "sharing" as possible.
I really dont know how these Crowd Funding platforms work or if I have created it correctly, so forgive me if I make a mistake in its set-up. If you receive this appeal more than once (or even multiple times!), please accept my apologies in advance - it certainly wont be intentional. If I press the wrong button (or indeed the correct one repeatedly?), it is an error and I am sorry.
If, with your invaluable help, I can raise three or four thousand pounds to get home, it really will be a case of my thanking you all for literally saving my life.
Thank you all, very much.
....Right now, I am stranded in Ghana. The company that sent me here in 2015 ran into difficulties that resulted in my being made unemployed in West Africa after just four months. In retrospect, I probably at that time could have returned to the UK, but I was assured by so many here that job prospects were good, so I made the decision to stay and seek further employment. Moreover, I had started a personal relationship (that is still solid today, thankfully) and felt sure that my decision was the correct one. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but rarely helpful in real-time!
I managed to survive for several months during which I applied for countless jobs both here and elsewhere in West Africa, the continent as a whole and internationally. With zero success or even responses, my limited savings were soon spent. By the end of last year, I was only able to eat thanks to the kindness and generosity of my parents and two friends in the UK that between them have been able to send me some cash. However, none of them has sufficient resources to fund an evacuation.
Then out of the blue in December 2016, I was invited to consult for a start-up manufacturing project and things started to look very promising. Until April when the company that had engaged me suddenly pulled out, left Ghana, withdrew all funding and totally abandoned me here with no income, unpaid fees and other dissatisfied parties to whom money was owed. I was plunged back to where I was a few months previously, only in a worse situation, with the debts I had inherited from them and no access to money whatsoever.
In the last 20 or so weeks since I became stranded, my partner and I have only be able to eat through the kindness of family and local friends. But the seriousness of my situation extends beyond just food. My savings ran out months ago and I am now in a desperate position.
At this point, you will be asking yourself "why doesn't he just go to the embassy and come home?" Well, if it were a matter of air-tickets perhaps that would be the solution, or at least a few months ago probably would have been. However, there are issues that now make such a simple plan an impossible one without a much higher cost attached.
I can no longer replace the prescriptions I require and my health is deteriorating noticeably. In particular, the diabetes that I was diagnosed with shortly before coming to Ghana has gone two years without any treatment or medication - I feel in myself that this is now becoming a serious problem. In the last two years I have also developed rheumatoid arthritis and having succumbed to malaria several times with its inevitable toll especially on ones liver, it is safe to say that my health is in a pretty poor state now. And I am anxious to repair it before any permanent damage is done.
As well as being unable to cover such expenses as electricity, communication and gas for cooking, I am very behind with my rent and the landlord (understandably) has run out of patience. I live within a compound so it would be impossible (as well as morally wrong) to leave here without paying what I owe. And even if I could, the system here would ensure I was detained at the airport for trying to leave with unpaid bills.
In addition, due to being involved with two companies both of whom for one reason or another pulled out after short periods of time, I am left here without a work or residency permit and a visa that expired 18 months ago. I am for all intents and purposes an illegal immigrant and the fine I need to pay before being allowed to exit the country is now very large - and growing by the week, of course. Were I to attempt to leave the country I would be arrested and imprisoned immediately. I am keen to avoid even seeing the inside of a Ghanaian prison much less spend months "residing" in one.
Being without a residency permit also prevents me from being considered for any local employment. I am very much trapped here now - unable to earn money, unable to borrow any, unable to leave and unable to eat, survive or seek medical attention.
I am therefore trying to raise the funds I need to evacuate myself and my partner back to the UK where I can attend to my health and get well. I need to start over and find a job, rebuild my life and rejoin society, my family and friends again.
In a nutshell, I need to raise sufficient money if possible to pay the fine to the Immigration Department (who I know now have my name on their list and an alert for me at the borders) - this alone is over £500. I need to clear the arrears in my rent as well as keeping it up to date until I can actually physically leave Ghana (it will take a few weeks to reclaim my passport etc) - this amounts to £800. Exit and visitor visas, airfares etc will require some £1200+/-, and I need to just survive the next few weeks so as to be able to get home alive rather than in a box.
Needless to say, after the last few months and the current consequences as a result, I am keen to leave here as quickly as possible. So I am taking this first opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to all and any of you that can find it in their capacity to assist me in getting out of the hole I am in and giving me a small helping hand up again.
I appreciate that not everybody will be able to help me or even want to. I understand this completely, but I thank you for even reading this far, considering my request and for your friendship. To those that do consent to assist me, I am truly grateful. I assure you all that when I am back to good health and working again, if there is ever anything I can ever do to assist you (regardless of this appeal and its possible outcome) you can count on me to do my very best.
Finally, I have no idea what happens after I submit this! I assume it will generate some kind of link to Facebook, for example, and that I will need to publish it there and/or elsewhere. As well as any donantion you can offer, if I may make one last request, it would be that you kindly "share" and "forward" this to your network, friends and contacts (as opposed to just "Liking" it). I believe such campaigns and their success depend on as much coverage, exposure and "sharing" as possible.
I really dont know how these Crowd Funding platforms work or if I have created it correctly, so forgive me if I make a mistake in its set-up. If you receive this appeal more than once (or even multiple times!), please accept my apologies in advance - it certainly wont be intentional. If I press the wrong button (or indeed the correct one repeatedly?), it is an error and I am sorry.
If, with your invaluable help, I can raise three or four thousand pounds to get home, it really will be a case of my thanking you all for literally saving my life.
Thank you all, very much.
Organizer
Dominic Ryan
Organizer
