A volunteer needs your help!
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Hello!
I am Michał from Poland and I am an environmental volunteer in Iceland. I belong to a team of camp leaders who educate participants about environmental issues and the actions we can take to prevent them. We are like a small family living in a volunteer house in Reykjavik!
(I asked my fellow camp leader Leonardo from Italy to register on the website, since Poland is not on the supported countries list of gofundme.)
Besides environmental camps we also organize various volunteering activities, like trash hunting in the forests, beach cleanups, etc.
After some time spent on Iceland I managed to plan enough free days to have my own dream trip – a so called “ring road” around the island!
And so we rent a camper and started a journey of exploring th beauty of Iceland – me as a driver with two other volunteers as passengers.
Those were 5 incredible days and I felt like it was the best experience of my life.
On the last evening we cleaned the camper carefully and then I went alone to leave it in the rental place. When I parked it on the side I thought “Why not park it in front of the office, so they will notice it easier in the morning?” and then… I forgot about the street lamp when I was reversing the car (as seen below).
I damaged the right backdoor (with a window) and the bumper.
However, according to the company’s damage estimation the door replacement was worth… 3000 euros (actually even more, but 3000 euros was the company's limit of customer responsibility).
The price for replacing a door was quite a shock for me. As a driver I had to pay everything and was left alone with the issue.
3000 euros is an amount of money I never even had in my life.
I spent all my life savings and it was not even the half of the expense.
To cover the rest of it, I had to borrow the money.
This kind of damage should be covered by my volunteer insurance as third party liability (I checked all the possible exceptions in the regulations), which was confirmed by the company after some time.
However, a week later I got a response from another insurance company that I had to forward documents to, which appeared to be the first company's insurer for this particular benefit. Since they had a different list of exceptions, they closed my case as they would not cover a car that was rent.
I tried to seek for help from other sources for a long time, however with no effect and because of my volunteering contract I cannot work for any salary, so I have no way to get any money back - even to return the part I had to borrow.
Unfortunately, I am out of options and feel pretty desperate, especially when it comes to paying off my dept.
This crowdfunding action was my last idea. I am asking you for help - both financial one and through sharing this story.
I cannot offer much in exchange - but I could try to share my knowledge and invite those who decide to help for specially prepared environmental online sessions! :) I will also ask my fellow volunteers to do the same!
I will really appreciate your support. Please share this story on social media to make it more visible!
Thank you!
Michał and Leonardo
I am Michał from Poland and I am an environmental volunteer in Iceland. I belong to a team of camp leaders who educate participants about environmental issues and the actions we can take to prevent them. We are like a small family living in a volunteer house in Reykjavik!
(I asked my fellow camp leader Leonardo from Italy to register on the website, since Poland is not on the supported countries list of gofundme.)
Besides environmental camps we also organize various volunteering activities, like trash hunting in the forests, beach cleanups, etc.
After some time spent on Iceland I managed to plan enough free days to have my own dream trip – a so called “ring road” around the island!
And so we rent a camper and started a journey of exploring th beauty of Iceland – me as a driver with two other volunteers as passengers.
Those were 5 incredible days and I felt like it was the best experience of my life.
On the last evening we cleaned the camper carefully and then I went alone to leave it in the rental place. When I parked it on the side I thought “Why not park it in front of the office, so they will notice it easier in the morning?” and then… I forgot about the street lamp when I was reversing the car (as seen below).
I damaged the right backdoor (with a window) and the bumper.
However, according to the company’s damage estimation the door replacement was worth… 3000 euros (actually even more, but 3000 euros was the company's limit of customer responsibility).
The price for replacing a door was quite a shock for me. As a driver I had to pay everything and was left alone with the issue.
3000 euros is an amount of money I never even had in my life.
I spent all my life savings and it was not even the half of the expense.
To cover the rest of it, I had to borrow the money.
This kind of damage should be covered by my volunteer insurance as third party liability (I checked all the possible exceptions in the regulations), which was confirmed by the company after some time.
However, a week later I got a response from another insurance company that I had to forward documents to, which appeared to be the first company's insurer for this particular benefit. Since they had a different list of exceptions, they closed my case as they would not cover a car that was rent.
I tried to seek for help from other sources for a long time, however with no effect and because of my volunteering contract I cannot work for any salary, so I have no way to get any money back - even to return the part I had to borrow.
Unfortunately, I am out of options and feel pretty desperate, especially when it comes to paying off my dept.
This crowdfunding action was my last idea. I am asking you for help - both financial one and through sharing this story.
I cannot offer much in exchange - but I could try to share my knowledge and invite those who decide to help for specially prepared environmental online sessions! :) I will also ask my fellow volunteers to do the same!
I will really appreciate your support. Please share this story on social media to make it more visible!
Thank you!
Michał and Leonardo
Co-organizers (2)
Leonardo Andrea Valderrama Pereira
Organizer
Province of Como
Michał Grabowski
Co-organizer