Help Pao's Family Escape Crushing Debt

Hello all, this is Pao. I'm a disabled 17-year-old from the slums of Quezon City, the Philippines, and I'm reaching out in the hopes of getting some help with my family's accumulated debt of roughly $10,000.

Because almost all of that was borrowed from a loan shark, we've had to pay 20% interest every month for the past however many years--that's $2,000, whereas my dad makes only $600 to $700 in that same time. That difference we make up by borrowing yet more money from other sources. I say "we" but really it's all my mom, who's the only parent with me and my younger sister since my dad works overseas; in fact I only found out about the enormity of the debt and the cross she's had to bear all by herself for so long when she finally broke down and told me everything some months ago.

Ever since, I've tried to help out by doing the odd commission (I've been in campus journalism since the fourth grade) and even asking for money from friends and comrades so she wouldn't have to worry about our food that day and so on, but it's really, really not enough. And it's not like I can do more before I turn 18 and can apply for a proper job, and neither are my dad's prospects any better--he's in his 60s (my mom's in her 50s) and suffers from diabetes and colon problems which have yet to be diagnosed because they're not covered by company insurance. My mom's also trying to find a job, but it's difficult with a household to run and all the stress of managing our massive (for us at least) debt burden on top of that. She's always been sickly herself--she has asthma, and in her youth she underwent many operations for enlargement of the heart, lymphadenitis, &c.--and lately she's just been getting worse. It tears me up inside seeing her like this and being barely able to help; it infuriates and pains me to no end that such injustice is even possible and that countless other people suffer much, much worse.

I would be incredibly grateful for whatever help you could extend. Outside of donations, I'm open to doing writing commissions, and as I mentioned above, my mom's also looking for work--she has a bachelor's in nursing (though she never took the licensure exam) and training and work experience as a caregiver. I on the other hand am an incoming freshman taking up history at the University of the Philippines Dilimán. Please write to me at [email redacted] for anything pertaining to the foregoing. Thank you! And bless!