help toby and tony see their mom again

hi i'm toby :p if you're reading this, i'll assume you're a friend of mine and likely know the story already but

in 2020, my tiny family of myself, my mom, and my younger brother were rocked by an explosion of different disasters as soon as COVID lockdown began. a destructive combination of COVID interrupting our legal status while living in the UK, the beginning of my mother's first plight into psychosis and subsequent institutionalisations, eviction and the promise of homelessness, with nowhere to turn to for resources as COVID shut the world down.

my mother is a Polish immigrant and single mother who, in the face of domestic violence, poverty, and the expenses of trying to secure her status in the USA, took care of myself and my brother until the moment she lost her mind.

she remains in the UK to this day, where we once lived with her until we had no choice but to return to the USA where we were born without her. she stays in assisted living, unable to travel and very barely living on her own while going in and out of lucidity due to extreme mental health issues. myself and my brother have been unable to be with her in person since the last time we saw her in September, 2020, bringing us close to five years of being torn apart.

in 2013, my mom moved myself and my brother to the UK in hopes of better survival for our tiny family as we could not make it in America. over those seven years we grew up there, immigration laws changed with Brexit, rising tensions and increasing right wing anti-immigration sentiments in the country, and still my mom made only enough wages to breakeven, let alone to shoulder the increasing costs of finalizing our UK citizenship.

the process of naturalization required seven years of active residency in the UK and wouldn't you know, seven years from our arrival in the UK, 2019 COVID lockdown begins. US embassies went into indefinite close and no law firms were willing to process "non-urgent" matters such as ours was deemed to be.

with our mother and only member of family forcibly sectioned under a mental health act to a hospital for what turned into a year, myself and my brother only being 15 and 17 years old, and nobody at home to pay rent or bills; the local law and social workers told me that no homeless shelters/housing programs would take us in due to our immigration status being in purgatory. i was told if i didn't find family to return to in the USA, my brother would likely be taken from me and put into foster care. though we met all the qualifications to attain our permanent residency, the money and accessibility wasn't there. my scholarships were nullified, neither me or my brother could continue education, apply for work, apply for emergency help- the only choice we were presented was to apply for "voluntary self deportation" through the UK government, no choice to stay with our mother or the country we knew as home.

during her time in the psychiatric hospital, she was set up with a small amount of welfare for her newly diagnosed disabling mental disorder. she used her first deposit of that money to buy me and my brother one way tickets back to the USA. we left with two backpacks and two suitcases each, rehomed our cats, said goodbye to the only family member we ever knew and the only country we remembered growing up in to come back to the USA.

i've spent the past five years trying to build some kind of foundation for me and my brother without our mom. i work full time and have dropped out of school in hopes to build some kind of funds to get us back to her but it simply isn't possible in the state this country and it's economy is in.

for a round trip from Austin to London, it's approximately $680 per person in fall/winter, disregarding all other travel expenses. i know $1000 is a hefty target, but i really believe if my community could help me get just some of the weight off the ground, i could work my way up into making the money for the rest we'd need.

this gofundme exists as a pool for funds that i hope to earn through a couple of different events, art commissions, gifted money from friends, and whatever else i can do to make it happen.

p.s .. if you donate $20+ and have any requests for a souvenir from the UK, dm me ;p

thanks every1