After years of harassment and persecution in his hometown of Cali, Colombia. David decided to leave in order to create a better life for himself.

With the financial help of his mother and sister, he first arrived in Spain, where he thought he would be able to settle. But after finding himself in an incredibly abusive relationship, made to live without any personal belongings and only allowed to leave the house with permission. Along with the racism and xenophobia that comes from being Latinx in Spain, he knew he couldn't stay.

He left in the middle of the night and got on a flight to London, where he had a few friends living who he could stay with until he figured out what to do.

After finally gaining a semblance of stability and safety in here, David was convinced London was where he could finally build a life for himself, so he applied for Asylum.

This is when I met him, David and I have been in a relationship since January of this year and I have been helping him as much as I can with his Asylum Application and helping to support him financially.

As an Asylum Seeker, David is not legally allowed to work, meaning my income has been spread incredibly thin in an attempt to support the both of us.

The UK Asylum System is notoriously difficult to navigate, I've learnt this first-hand throughout my time helping David.

Finding a lawyer, attending hearings, collating evidence, all these things take time and money. Even as a Native English Speaker with a stable income, it has been impossible to keep up.

We have now been informed that Davids initial application has been refused. We are appealing this decision, but with an appeal comes additional legal and application fees (which doesn't make sense if you don't allow the applicant to work, I know).

Therefore we are asking the community we are a part of for any assistance that can be provided.

Any donations received will be used towards Davids legal fees, along with helping him to provide basic amenities such as food and personal hygiene products for himself.

Anyone with any experience of the UK Asylum Process, your advice is also incredibly welcome and necessary so i urge you please reach out with experienced lawyers, ANY reliable charitable foundations/funds, specifically within aid for people of marginalised Latin X backgrounds but also further reaching if applicable.

David and everyone in his support system is doing what we can to nurture the new life he has began to build here in London.

Anyone who has met him has felt his warmth, effervescence and kindness all through the stresses of him dealing with language barriers, stress and instability regarding his future here. So we urge you to help us because he, along with everyone in the world, is deserving of support in his struggle for self-determination in a system that does everything it can to impede him.

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

Sage and David x