Help Love Win in Myanmar: War, Medical Debt &Visas
Donation protected
Daniel has been living in Myanmar (Burma) since 2016, and over the last 12 months he has gone through more obstacles than most people do in years, accumulating massive debt. Now a violent military coup threatens to tear him apart from his fiancée, Lay Byay, or drown them together in rapidly-growing debt.
On February 1st 2021, the Myanmar military denied the November election results, claiming fraud and overthrew the entire democratic government, taking let leaders and the Congress building (#Trump2021!) and blocked access to all social media and messaging apps. Then on March 18, the new military regime cut off nearly all internet in the country (more than 99% without access) and finally, after weeks, has started to slowly restore it after checking users' prior internet activity. Meanwhile, tens of millions still remain without internet, the current death toll is estimated at over 775, and over 3,700 protesters are in jail.
There are several of us organizing this. Danny is our brother, our son, and our friend, and he needs all of our help. Help from family, from friends, and even from strangers. In fact, especially from strangers, because Dan would be the first person to help a stranger on the street - and apparently he has been doing just that, providing medical treatment for protesters, even when it put him in danger.
At the beginning of 2020, Dan contracted typhoid fever (an often deadly disease) and he spent three rough days needing his wonderful fiancée Lay Byay to walk him to the bathroom because he didn't have the strength to walk on his own. On the bright-side, treatment was very cheap. On the downside, what should have been the most serious problem of his year ended up barely being worth a mention by the end of it.
His bad luck truly climaxed in March 2020 (and then probably rolled over and lit a cigarette after screwing him this hard). While inspecting the upper level of an old sawmill that his boss was showing him for potential use as the base-structure for the second bar & restaurant Dan would design, the unthinkable happened. Part of the upper level of the building collapsed with Daniel on it, leading to a terrible disaster.
He fell to the level below and landed on a cast iron machine, he shattered his arm into 6 pieces, compressed his spine, and sustained several other injuries. The difference of just a few inches/centimeters would have undoubtedly meant deadly head trauma.
This devastating injury required two major reconstructive surgeries—including metal plates, rods, and screws inside the body to keep him from falling apart like Mr. Potato Head. For both surgeries, Lay Byay slept on a bench in the hospital hallway as Daniel struggled through lengthy recoveries, each time roughly a month just in the hospital.
I'll try to summarize the rest. A fuller explanation of everything can be found after the line of asterisks three paragraphs down.
From July to August he was forced to stay in hotels in Yangon to stay near his surgeon after the second surgery, while also starting to renew his visa. Then a second wave of Covid-19 hit the city, and it was completely sealed off, no one in or out, which forced he and Lay Byay to stay in a hotel until December, keeping them away from their home in Dawei.
In December it became clear that he had become one of a dozen foreigners who were scammed by this particular visa agent, so even once the city opened up again, they couldn't return to their home in Dawei with his visa so long ago expired. He was now trapped again in Yangon, unable to travel, nor live in or rent a private residence. He was limited to hotels, as he had been.
Living in a hotel is expensive, and with no cash, the hotel bills and grocery trips all went on credit cards.
Then on February 1st, the military coup happened, and it became clear that waiting out covid would not be enough to find employment. So they decided they would have to leave Myanmar for now. Little did they know that this seemingly simple task would take even longer than waiting out Covid.
Lay Byay has no passport, birth certificate, or even a legitimate ID. Many important paperrs were lost when she was 10 years old and Cyclone Nargis hit her village, killing her family, destroying her village and it's administrative office ( copies of important papers were kept) and leaving her on her own to fend for herself, with no idea of what peppers may have been important.
So now they begin the arduous process of trying to get all of that paperwork reissued, to confirm her identity, and finally get a marriage certificate and passport. Depending on the conditions in the country at that time - sometime a few months from now, they will decide if they start the far more lengthy process of getting a US visa, or merely finding a secondary country where they both can temporarily live and work and apply for her US visa from there. Most likely now, it will be the latter.
Daniel's current debt from these events is just shy of $25,000, a quarter of which alone comes from built up largerinterest (which is quickly growing , mostly because of the very high interest rates on the cash advances he needed to take out to pay the hospital bills). We've set the fundraiser goal at $32,000 for his debt and overstay fines, to cover living expenses for the foreseeable future. He should get this deposited to his back account fairly regularly, but if you want to help him more urgently, we can give you his accounts on different money transfer apps.
Right now, they need some helping hands. There is so much bad happening in Myanmar right now, but their love is a radiant light in that darkness, so let's do what we can to make sure that at the end of the day love wins. Thank you everyone, from the bottom of all of our hearts.
*****************************************************
*****************************************************
After multiple flights to Yangon, bone grafts, tubes going in and out of his body, a rod drilled into his humerus, and potentially more surgeries still to come, he was left with no funds after his company reneged on much of his salary and employment package (as well as most of his hospital bills, save for the deposit on the first one) before vanishing - as they struggled with major losses due to their hasty and poor judgement in regards to environmental and property laws.
After the second surgery, Daniel and Lay Byay stayed in Yangon in a hotel on the insistence of his surgeon, who wanted him to remain close by after the first surgical fixation device failed, bending over the course of several weeks until it was... bad (photo below). His travel insurance used every excuse to deny the hospital claims. They called this "urban exploration/trespassing" which is a listed uncovered "risky activity". Then he wrote an appeal as explained that no, he was working with his boss, scouting for a new restaurant site to rent, develop and manage. Then they said that his travel insurance only covers works trips abroad (for jobs based your home country) not for living and working abroad for a business in a foreign country.
Then the second wave of COVID-19 hit Myanmar and Yangon was sealed off under strict quarantine. What started as a 2-week lockdown, extended two weeks at a time to a 4-month forced stay in the hotel, all on credit cards.
Attempting to renew his visa left him stuck in Yangon even longer due to being scammed by an agent, who made off with just over $1000 in fake fees. Since the extension was never actually applied for or processed, this accumulated at least $2,000 in overstay fees and counting, and the government has been no help, even though they acknowledged that he was scammed by a registered visa agency. They were no help before the coup, and now everything is just shut down.
Daniel is now accumulating about $700 per month in credit card interest fees, and many months it's closer to $1000 with late fees he can't avoid. The high interest is in large part due to the extremely high APRs charged on cash advances that he needed to take out to help pay the hospital. He is just barely able to make the minimum payments with the money we, his family, have been able to send.
The plan was to get Lay Byay a passport and a tourist visa to the US, and he would work off his debt back here in New York. But getting the passport became complicated, and then the US Embassy stopped issuing nearly all visas for Myanmar citizens. So the quick and easy tourist visa was off the table.
Now he's in the middle of the violent military coup. Military units sweep through apartment buildings at night and round up people for unknown reasons, taking them to unknown locations. For weeks the internet was shut off every night until 9am the next day, if you were one of the lucky few to do have it with fiber; no one can post warnings online or livestream these gestapo-like operations. During the day, protesters are blinded with tear gas and shot with rubber bullets and live ammo.
"We've gotten so used to hearing gunfire that our minds have just started tuning it out. Like the sound of barking dogs," Daniel told us.
Daniel is trying to find Lay Byay a legal path to come to America, but for that to happen, they have to get married in a hurry—as guns are fired all around the city. This is complicated because it requires the right documentation, much of which was swept away by the sea when Cyclone Nargis tore apart her village in 2008, taking her whole family (except possibly her older sister) and leaving her to fend for herself at 10 years old.
Lay Byay already lost the people she loved most once, and Daniel can’t put her through that again. She has had a harder life than any of us can imagine. Now, after more than a decade, she finally again has a stable living situation, a loving relationship, and only in the last couple of months before the coup has Dan finally started to hear her really laugh deeply.
Daniel knows, if he leaves the country he’d have to do so alone, with no guarantee of return. No guarantee of ever hearing that laugh again, or anyone hearing it come from her again. The military's current internet shutdown that started on March 18 and lasted weeks, is likely sign of more long-term blackouts to come, should protest activity increase again.
If Daniel were to leave to come work in the US, it could leave him stuck outside of Myanmar, entirely cut off from the woman he loves, who has loved and cared for him more than any of us could hope from his future wife during this difficult time.
As people vanish from their homes during night raids, with no way of knowing where they are or how to reach them, this leaves Dan with no choice. No one could ask him to leave her in that situation.
Now the only documents that would exist for Lay Byay, if they can be located, would be in the new capital of Naypyidaw. It will take time and resources to track down a copy, especially with all of the turmoil in the capital and within the government and walkouts from the general strike.
On March 19, the New York Times reported, "And in grand government ministries in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, stacks of documents are curling in the humidity. There are few people to process all the paperwork."
Even if they can get the paperwork, and get married in Myanmar, and get her a passport, and get all of this done, the US embassy still requires even more documentation and estimates at least a 2–3 month backlog for visas being issued. That's on top of the normal processing time, which according to other American/Myanmar couples, takes 14-18 months. The Americans that are currently trying to evacuate the country with their Myanmar fiancées and spouses to escape being shot at and avoiding explosions - they don't get any kind of expedited service during a crisis to get them home safely, it temporary refuge status so they can get home safely and then deal with all the paperwork and interviews, just our government's everyday slow and uncaring modus operandi.
Given the lengthy process of this, once they have their marriage certificate and Lay Byay has her passport, they may look for an alternate destination where they could both go and temporarily live and work and apply for her US visa there, but that is still several months away, and right now they're taking things one day at a time.
Before his accident, Daniel felt prepared for unexpected circumstances and unemployment, but his former employers withheld from him almost $16,000 for unpaid work and medical expenses. With both COVID-19 and the military coup shutting down almost everything within Myanmar, there are no jobs, especially for foreigners.
His current debt is just shy of $25,000, a quarter of which comes from built up interest. We've set the fundraiser goal at $32,000 for his debt and overstay fines, to cover living expenses for the foreseeable future.
Any amount over this will first go towards finding Lay Byay's older sister—the only family member that may have survived Nargis. Any additional funds will also go towards helping local Myanmar friends who are struggling to eat, buying medical supplies for field medics like Daniel and others to use treating victims, and organizations like underground home clinics that treat people who would be in danger if they go to a hospital from protest injuries.
The country is a warzone, except only one side has guns, and the other just has homemade shields cut from oil barrels. Despite this, Danny, with an injured spine and cane in hand, continues to offer first aid, as people are shot in the streets. Knowing him, he's probably taking even greater risks to help then he has let on, but he'd never tell us everything, because he doesn't want his mom having daily panic attacks.
He has a big heart and is doing whatever he can to help the people of this country. So please, let's help him, and help keep him afloat so he is not forced to leave the love of his life. Dan has so much love for Lay Byay and the people of Myanmar, but can't keep this up for long. They've got a long road ahead until they can leave. And until then, they have no source of income, and legally can't even rent a house or apartment with Dan's visa expired.
If you already read it above, you can read it again: Right now, they need some helping hands. There is so much bad happening in Myanmar right now, but their love is a radiant light in that darkness, so let's do what we can to make sure that at the end of the day love wins. Thank you everyone, from the bottom of all of our hearts.
On February 1st 2021, the Myanmar military denied the November election results, claiming fraud and overthrew the entire democratic government, taking let leaders and the Congress building (#Trump2021!) and blocked access to all social media and messaging apps. Then on March 18, the new military regime cut off nearly all internet in the country (more than 99% without access) and finally, after weeks, has started to slowly restore it after checking users' prior internet activity. Meanwhile, tens of millions still remain without internet, the current death toll is estimated at over 775, and over 3,700 protesters are in jail.
There are several of us organizing this. Danny is our brother, our son, and our friend, and he needs all of our help. Help from family, from friends, and even from strangers. In fact, especially from strangers, because Dan would be the first person to help a stranger on the street - and apparently he has been doing just that, providing medical treatment for protesters, even when it put him in danger.
At the beginning of 2020, Dan contracted typhoid fever (an often deadly disease) and he spent three rough days needing his wonderful fiancée Lay Byay to walk him to the bathroom because he didn't have the strength to walk on his own. On the bright-side, treatment was very cheap. On the downside, what should have been the most serious problem of his year ended up barely being worth a mention by the end of it.
His bad luck truly climaxed in March 2020 (and then probably rolled over and lit a cigarette after screwing him this hard). While inspecting the upper level of an old sawmill that his boss was showing him for potential use as the base-structure for the second bar & restaurant Dan would design, the unthinkable happened. Part of the upper level of the building collapsed with Daniel on it, leading to a terrible disaster.
He fell to the level below and landed on a cast iron machine, he shattered his arm into 6 pieces, compressed his spine, and sustained several other injuries. The difference of just a few inches/centimeters would have undoubtedly meant deadly head trauma.
This devastating injury required two major reconstructive surgeries—including metal plates, rods, and screws inside the body to keep him from falling apart like Mr. Potato Head. For both surgeries, Lay Byay slept on a bench in the hospital hallway as Daniel struggled through lengthy recoveries, each time roughly a month just in the hospital.
I'll try to summarize the rest. A fuller explanation of everything can be found after the line of asterisks three paragraphs down.
From July to August he was forced to stay in hotels in Yangon to stay near his surgeon after the second surgery, while also starting to renew his visa. Then a second wave of Covid-19 hit the city, and it was completely sealed off, no one in or out, which forced he and Lay Byay to stay in a hotel until December, keeping them away from their home in Dawei.
In December it became clear that he had become one of a dozen foreigners who were scammed by this particular visa agent, so even once the city opened up again, they couldn't return to their home in Dawei with his visa so long ago expired. He was now trapped again in Yangon, unable to travel, nor live in or rent a private residence. He was limited to hotels, as he had been.
Living in a hotel is expensive, and with no cash, the hotel bills and grocery trips all went on credit cards.
Then on February 1st, the military coup happened, and it became clear that waiting out covid would not be enough to find employment. So they decided they would have to leave Myanmar for now. Little did they know that this seemingly simple task would take even longer than waiting out Covid.
Lay Byay has no passport, birth certificate, or even a legitimate ID. Many important paperrs were lost when she was 10 years old and Cyclone Nargis hit her village, killing her family, destroying her village and it's administrative office ( copies of important papers were kept) and leaving her on her own to fend for herself, with no idea of what peppers may have been important.
So now they begin the arduous process of trying to get all of that paperwork reissued, to confirm her identity, and finally get a marriage certificate and passport. Depending on the conditions in the country at that time - sometime a few months from now, they will decide if they start the far more lengthy process of getting a US visa, or merely finding a secondary country where they both can temporarily live and work and apply for her US visa from there. Most likely now, it will be the latter.
Daniel's current debt from these events is just shy of $25,000, a quarter of which alone comes from built up largerinterest (which is quickly growing , mostly because of the very high interest rates on the cash advances he needed to take out to pay the hospital bills). We've set the fundraiser goal at $32,000 for his debt and overstay fines, to cover living expenses for the foreseeable future. He should get this deposited to his back account fairly regularly, but if you want to help him more urgently, we can give you his accounts on different money transfer apps.
Right now, they need some helping hands. There is so much bad happening in Myanmar right now, but their love is a radiant light in that darkness, so let's do what we can to make sure that at the end of the day love wins. Thank you everyone, from the bottom of all of our hearts.
*****************************************************
*****************************************************
After multiple flights to Yangon, bone grafts, tubes going in and out of his body, a rod drilled into his humerus, and potentially more surgeries still to come, he was left with no funds after his company reneged on much of his salary and employment package (as well as most of his hospital bills, save for the deposit on the first one) before vanishing - as they struggled with major losses due to their hasty and poor judgement in regards to environmental and property laws.
After the second surgery, Daniel and Lay Byay stayed in Yangon in a hotel on the insistence of his surgeon, who wanted him to remain close by after the first surgical fixation device failed, bending over the course of several weeks until it was... bad (photo below). His travel insurance used every excuse to deny the hospital claims. They called this "urban exploration/trespassing" which is a listed uncovered "risky activity". Then he wrote an appeal as explained that no, he was working with his boss, scouting for a new restaurant site to rent, develop and manage. Then they said that his travel insurance only covers works trips abroad (for jobs based your home country) not for living and working abroad for a business in a foreign country.
Then the second wave of COVID-19 hit Myanmar and Yangon was sealed off under strict quarantine. What started as a 2-week lockdown, extended two weeks at a time to a 4-month forced stay in the hotel, all on credit cards.
Attempting to renew his visa left him stuck in Yangon even longer due to being scammed by an agent, who made off with just over $1000 in fake fees. Since the extension was never actually applied for or processed, this accumulated at least $2,000 in overstay fees and counting, and the government has been no help, even though they acknowledged that he was scammed by a registered visa agency. They were no help before the coup, and now everything is just shut down.
Daniel is now accumulating about $700 per month in credit card interest fees, and many months it's closer to $1000 with late fees he can't avoid. The high interest is in large part due to the extremely high APRs charged on cash advances that he needed to take out to help pay the hospital. He is just barely able to make the minimum payments with the money we, his family, have been able to send.
The plan was to get Lay Byay a passport and a tourist visa to the US, and he would work off his debt back here in New York. But getting the passport became complicated, and then the US Embassy stopped issuing nearly all visas for Myanmar citizens. So the quick and easy tourist visa was off the table.
Now he's in the middle of the violent military coup. Military units sweep through apartment buildings at night and round up people for unknown reasons, taking them to unknown locations. For weeks the internet was shut off every night until 9am the next day, if you were one of the lucky few to do have it with fiber; no one can post warnings online or livestream these gestapo-like operations. During the day, protesters are blinded with tear gas and shot with rubber bullets and live ammo.
"We've gotten so used to hearing gunfire that our minds have just started tuning it out. Like the sound of barking dogs," Daniel told us.
Daniel is trying to find Lay Byay a legal path to come to America, but for that to happen, they have to get married in a hurry—as guns are fired all around the city. This is complicated because it requires the right documentation, much of which was swept away by the sea when Cyclone Nargis tore apart her village in 2008, taking her whole family (except possibly her older sister) and leaving her to fend for herself at 10 years old.
Lay Byay already lost the people she loved most once, and Daniel can’t put her through that again. She has had a harder life than any of us can imagine. Now, after more than a decade, she finally again has a stable living situation, a loving relationship, and only in the last couple of months before the coup has Dan finally started to hear her really laugh deeply.
Daniel knows, if he leaves the country he’d have to do so alone, with no guarantee of return. No guarantee of ever hearing that laugh again, or anyone hearing it come from her again. The military's current internet shutdown that started on March 18 and lasted weeks, is likely sign of more long-term blackouts to come, should protest activity increase again.
If Daniel were to leave to come work in the US, it could leave him stuck outside of Myanmar, entirely cut off from the woman he loves, who has loved and cared for him more than any of us could hope from his future wife during this difficult time.
As people vanish from their homes during night raids, with no way of knowing where they are or how to reach them, this leaves Dan with no choice. No one could ask him to leave her in that situation.
Now the only documents that would exist for Lay Byay, if they can be located, would be in the new capital of Naypyidaw. It will take time and resources to track down a copy, especially with all of the turmoil in the capital and within the government and walkouts from the general strike.
On March 19, the New York Times reported, "And in grand government ministries in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, stacks of documents are curling in the humidity. There are few people to process all the paperwork."
Even if they can get the paperwork, and get married in Myanmar, and get her a passport, and get all of this done, the US embassy still requires even more documentation and estimates at least a 2–3 month backlog for visas being issued. That's on top of the normal processing time, which according to other American/Myanmar couples, takes 14-18 months. The Americans that are currently trying to evacuate the country with their Myanmar fiancées and spouses to escape being shot at and avoiding explosions - they don't get any kind of expedited service during a crisis to get them home safely, it temporary refuge status so they can get home safely and then deal with all the paperwork and interviews, just our government's everyday slow and uncaring modus operandi.
Given the lengthy process of this, once they have their marriage certificate and Lay Byay has her passport, they may look for an alternate destination where they could both go and temporarily live and work and apply for her US visa there, but that is still several months away, and right now they're taking things one day at a time.
Before his accident, Daniel felt prepared for unexpected circumstances and unemployment, but his former employers withheld from him almost $16,000 for unpaid work and medical expenses. With both COVID-19 and the military coup shutting down almost everything within Myanmar, there are no jobs, especially for foreigners.
His current debt is just shy of $25,000, a quarter of which comes from built up interest. We've set the fundraiser goal at $32,000 for his debt and overstay fines, to cover living expenses for the foreseeable future.
Any amount over this will first go towards finding Lay Byay's older sister—the only family member that may have survived Nargis. Any additional funds will also go towards helping local Myanmar friends who are struggling to eat, buying medical supplies for field medics like Daniel and others to use treating victims, and organizations like underground home clinics that treat people who would be in danger if they go to a hospital from protest injuries.
The country is a warzone, except only one side has guns, and the other just has homemade shields cut from oil barrels. Despite this, Danny, with an injured spine and cane in hand, continues to offer first aid, as people are shot in the streets. Knowing him, he's probably taking even greater risks to help then he has let on, but he'd never tell us everything, because he doesn't want his mom having daily panic attacks.
He has a big heart and is doing whatever he can to help the people of this country. So please, let's help him, and help keep him afloat so he is not forced to leave the love of his life. Dan has so much love for Lay Byay and the people of Myanmar, but can't keep this up for long. They've got a long road ahead until they can leave. And until then, they have no source of income, and legally can't even rent a house or apartment with Dan's visa expired.
If you already read it above, you can read it again: Right now, they need some helping hands. There is so much bad happening in Myanmar right now, but their love is a radiant light in that darkness, so let's do what we can to make sure that at the end of the day love wins. Thank you everyone, from the bottom of all of our hearts.
Co-organizers (2)
Alison Crist
Organizer
Lindenhurst, NY
Daniel Crist
Beneficiary
Stephen Crist
Co-organizer