Fundraiser for Cami, Emergency Living Situation

Dear Friends,

I am writing this as a last resort in hopes of obtaining support for my current situation. I have been in a toxic and abusive (both verbally and physically) home environment since I was young. To start from the beginning:

I grew up in Támesis, Colombia. My mother left my biological father who suffered from alcoholism and addiction, and gained her citizenship through marriage to another man. My mother, my step-father (now ex-stepfather), and I moved to America when I was eight years old. Through this marriage, I have endured trauma and abuse. I was sexually abused by my stepfather and was threatened I would be deported if I told anyone. When I realized what was happening, I told my mother and was sent back to Colombia to live on my own at sixteen-years-old while she promised to divorce him. To my surprise, when I came back, he was still there.

We continued to live in the same house with the man who abused and continued to abuse me for a year longer until my mother met someone else and chose to finally divorce him because of her own issues with him. Because of the divorce and lack of my ex-stepfather’s health benefits, I no longer had/have health insurance, and thus could not get the help I needed through therapy, counseling, or any medical help without paying out of pocket. This was extremely difficult because official work was hard to come by without papers, and any money I received was taken by my mother as my contribution of “rent”.

At eighteen-years-old, I was able to start community college through financial aid, but a few weeks into the first semester I was notified that I would have to pay. When I asked why, they told me to bring proof of my citizenship and ex-stepfather’s taxes; this made it so that I was no longer able to attend. Though I have my Residency, my mother decided not to take the proper steps in getting my citizenship before I was eighteen. My Residency expires this year. Residency renewal and citizenship both require a great deal of money that I do not have.

To make money, I was working at a restaurant near where we moved after the divorce, however I was being taken advantage of by the owners. Huge sums of money were taken from my paycheck as a means of taxes, and told me they would deport me if I reported it. I quit that job and have been working one offs any chance I get.

Living at home has been detrimental to say the least. My mother was making me pay to live in our house when I had no other option; I can’t go to school, finding work is exceptionally difficult, I can’t go to any sort of doctor (medical or psychological), and I have had no financial support or guidance in getting my papers in the entire eleven years I have lived here.

I recently have been kicked out of my house, and not allowed back. I am nineteen-years-old. I have no family in America to turn to, and my father in Colombia is out of reach and unstable. I am currently sleeping on couches of friends trying to find a job, and saving up to find a room to sublet as soon as possible. This has been a horribly isolating/alienating experience and any donation or support would be so greatly appreciated. This money will help get me on my feet while I search for a steady job, safe place to live, therapy, and organizations to help acquire a Residency renewal and U.S citizenship.

Thank you so much,

Cami