Aid Val, Ginia & Aj in Relocating for Safety

Help Val, Ginia & Aj get back to safety/back home.

Hi there! This gofundme is on behalf of myself, Val, my daughter Ginia and partner Aj.

We moved to Iowa summer 2024 wanting a slower change of pace and a way for me and Ginia to gain some solace and emotional and physical healing. To those who didn’t know, 2023/2024 was emotionally crazy for our fam- with divorce, death, and burnout/health issues. We wanted to move to Iowa to get away from all those feelings, rest and recoup a little bit and see if we could start a life there.

Using all our savings we took a big risk- and moved the summer before the presidential election-.

Iowa is a red state, and as a poc it has made me feel increasingly uneasy. I worry about my daughter’s safety as a poc as well. I look around and see the trump stickers and signs on lawns and it has made me increasingly nervous. Sometimes I don’t feel safe walking peppy. I didn’t know people could hate so covertly and it has altered things for us.

I’m also worried about Ginia’s education and erasure of history potentially being presented in her curriculum as well as any discriminatory laws that may pass that hinder her safety.

I also worry about abortion laws that have and may take effect in the near future. As a mother of a teenager, I know what can happen and fear that access to emergency contraceptives or abortion could be cut off.

It at the time of writing this isn’t even 2 weeks of the new presidency and my and Ginia’s Medicare and food stamps have been threatened. As a severely asthmatic individual, who was hospitalized due to asthma complications from the flu- am terrified of our healthcare being taken away or not being able to afford or access hospital care.

I am also on HRT for pmdd & perimenopause and they have greatly improved my state of being, I’m currently paying out of pocket as my Iowa insurance won’t cover it, and worry that the state may do more to make it harder to obtain.

I know that if worse comes to worse, being back home in California (or a blue state- MN is our next option) I feel we would have a better chance at emergency medical coverage and state insurance as well as personal safety.

We are still currently undecided on which state to move to- if the economy fails and people don’t have disposable income, Aj’s income isn’t enough to pay rent in California if people can’t afford tattoos- and Aj’s company is based in Minneapolis, so it may be a bit safer financially to move to Minnesota, but we’re still going over it on the daily.

If we move back to California we must find a new place to live as our old place which my friend is subletting is filled with mold and has exacerbated my mental health issues as well as Peppy’s health issues over the 4 years we lived there.

The go fund me would help with moving expenses (u haul/car hitch, lodging +gas) + deposit and first month’s rent.

Either decision, we have to move out of Iowa, and we need help getting to a land where we feel safer for Virginia’s future.

We didn’t anticipate moving out so urgently, and have little savings left (we’re still paying off bills related to the move to Iowa) Anything helps. Aj and I are saving what we can to ready for the move as well. We’re hopefully aiming to finish off Ginia’s school year and move early June or August, but if things change safety wise just me and Ginia will move ahead of AJ (school year finished or not.) 

Thank you for reading, and thank you to those who have or will donate. Thanks for being in our lives and supporting our journey. I really wish I didn’t have to ask for help, but thank you so so much, all of you.

With love,

Val