Life has served a very dear friend of mine a couple of heavy blows. He has reached the end of his rope and reached out for help for his family. He is a very respectable well-educated person who was the sole bread winner for his family of four. Here is his story in his own words.

Between losing my full time job and my side business failing at the same time, we lost our only income and all our life savings. Although I have a PhD, I spent a year looking for a job to no avail. Under financial pressure, I decided to settle for an entry level job in addition to working another part time job. My wife, who has not worked after marriage, also found a part time job. However, the combined income is no where enough to cover our family expenses and the backpay to cover business losses. Our credit cards have raked about $32K in debt (in addition to a $180K of business loan debt), and increasing. Moreover, our house needs some high cost maintenance items that insurance doesn't cover, and I have been deferring them for lack of funds, but they are becoming critical.

The ordeal has taken a severe emotional toll on my family and my health is starting to suffer from sustained stress. Lord knows that we have always helped others as much as we can. Throughout my life, I have donated well over $100k to charities and directly to people I know that needed help.

There is an urgent need for about $22K that needs to be paid before the end of February in rent, property taxes, and loan payments that we don't have. We are also trying to secure our family expenses for the coming few months and pay off some of the expensive credit card debt to avoid further interest. This is not to mention the house repairs and the business debt.

Please donate whatever you can. Spread the word in your circles; someone else might be able to help. Also consultation with people experienced in managing debt is appreciated.

This fundraiser is for Amr Gado, which has been a friend of mine for 30 years.