<div>(For Dorka's full story and additional photos, please visit this <strong><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zwhLMA-fL6u2mcxIKukKN5DnuTQ8NLcdk-89GLd5LA8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Doc</a></strong> I have put together. For a shortened version, continue reading below.)
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<div><strong>Imagine you are a child with autism, trapped in poverty with a family who abuses you.</strong> Your earliest memories are steeped in scarcity, and the unending ache of hunger is more familiar to you than the feeling of being full. However, compared to the other things you experience on a daily basis, the malnourishment is almost manageable. Because when you are treated like an unwanted dog by your own parents, that’s a kind of pain that never stops hurting.
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<div>You are shunned and isolated simply for how your brain works, and whenever you show behaviors typical of someone with autism, your father <strong>strikes</strong> you, <strong>pushes</strong> you, <strong>kicks </strong>you, <strong>spits on</strong> you, <strong>breaks your few treasured belongings</strong>, and/or <strong>threatens to take you to an asylum.</strong> Your mother rarely protects you from his wrath, but when she does, she simply becomes his next target for screamed insults and threats. She will take it out on you later. With a drag of her fifth cigarette for the day, she will tell you to shut up and leave her alone. Your only option is to stay small, stay quiet, and try to disappear.
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<div>The only “home” you’ve ever known is a dilapidated 500-square-foot apartment you, your parents, and your two younger siblings are packed into like sardines in a dirty tin. From <strong>black mold</strong>, to <strong>pests</strong>, to <strong>secondhand smoke</strong>, to <strong>broken plumbing</strong>, to <strong>faulty electrical wiring</strong>… You face it all every day, year after year. And your parents’ disastrous <strong>hoarding</strong> tendencies quadruple the effects of each of these problems, making your life a <strong>living hell.</strong>
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<div>Despite it all, you somehow find the strength and optimism inside of you over and over again to keep going. You dream of having a room of your own to decorate to your heart’s content. You imagine quiet spaces and clean floors and a comfortable chair to do your work at. Part of you wants to believe that there is a life outside of this poverty and that one day you can break free if you just work hard enough! <strong>So you dedicate your every waking hour to school and to furthering your career through your talents.</strong>
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<div>Despite the starvation, the loneliness, the sleep deprivation, the dental pain, the asthma problems (worsened by secondhand smoke from your mother's cigarettes), and the abuse, <strong>you work hard every single day for more than 16 years.</strong> But no matter how hard you try, how late you stay up working, how much you sweat and cry and bleed for your future, your career does not take off. <strong>You are still stuck in poverty, in an apartment crammed to the brim with trash, surrounded by endless noise, and shackled to an abusive family that hates you.</strong>
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<div><strong>You’re 25 now. Still autistic and now deeply traumatized and frail</strong> from your years of being mistreated. You are exhausted to your very core, and you are no closer to escape.
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<div>What would you do?
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<div>Even when faced with the worst of the worst, <strong>many of us probably feel like we have options.</strong> In many countries, we trust that there are safety nets, public services, or people we can reach out to when our financial situation is bleak. We trust that there is somewhere we can go to report abuse or to seek safe refuge. We trust that there is someone to call when we are in danger.
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<div>But in <strong>Hungary</strong>, these options are <strong>limited</strong> for many people—and they are <strong>practically nonexistent for someone as poor and as vulnerable as my best friend Dorka.</strong> Corruption, lack of funding, and apathy mar every single system that could save my friend from the horrors I’ve described to you above, and at this point, there is no amount of “pulling herself up by her bootstraps” that will fix this! Hungary has some of the <strong>highest suicide rates in Europe</strong> for a reason.
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<div>Please. Hear this story of a girl who has <strong>remained kind and loving</strong> despite years of neglect and physical and emotional abuse! See her <strong>humanity</strong> and the lovely art she has been making for more than a <strong>decade!</strong> She deserves a proper home. She deserves to have food to eat every day. She deserves to be <strong>loved and cared for, unconditionally, for exactly who she is!</strong>
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<div>Dorka needs <strong>ALL OF US</strong> in order to finally escape the immoral conditions she has been trapped in her whole life. <strong>So please help me free her from her living nightmare NOW before it’s too late!</strong>
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<div><strong>Goals:</strong>
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<li><strong>Dorka needs funding for her basic necessities</strong>—food that's more than a slice of bread, clothing that's clean and not tattered, shelter that is free from abuse and environmental hazards, health care for her untreated asthma and tooth decay, and public transportation fare funds to find sustainable employment. These urgent needs being met will be the cornerstone of change in Dorka's life.
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<li><strong>Dorka needs funding for counseling</strong> to manage her mental health and help heal from the damage caused by her family. A counselor would also be a trusted person to help her prepare and navigate living on her own.
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<li><strong>Dorka needs funds to establish a safe place to live</strong> with a roommate or two who would help her transition. And if for some reason a suitable roommate cannot be found, funds will be used to help cover the cost of solo-renting.
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<li><strong>Our ultimate goal is to make it possible for Dorka to move to the United States.</strong> I’ve told her she will always have a home here with me, and she feels in her heart that this is where she belongs. There are many steps that must come before, but this goal is extremely important to her and I wanted to make you all aware of it.
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<div>Thank you so much for reading my friend’s story. Please help me change her life for the better!
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<div>Simon ♥
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<div><strong>MANDATORY T.O.S. DISCLAIMER: ABSOLUTELY NO SWEEPSTAKES, GIVEAWAYS, PROMOTIONS, OR OTHER PERKS ARE OFFERED IN EXCHANGE FOR DONATIONS ON THIS FUNDRAISER. </strong>
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Grant Schorr

Anonymous

Maritza Padilla

Help Dorka Escape Abuse and Poverty

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