Help Us Save Ryza’s Family Farm — Before It’s Lost Forever

Mihai Daniel Firea is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello friends,

My name is Daniel, and I’m reaching out with one of the hardest requests I’ve ever had to make.

My wife Ryza’s family are farmers in the mountains of Talacdan, Cauayan, Negros Occidental, in the Philippines. It’s a beautiful place, green and full of life — but life there is also full of hardship and poverty.

Ryza is the third child in a family of six. She and her youngest sister, Ann, still live with their parents on the family farm. Her older brothers have their own families now, but the parents remain the backbone of this household — or they used to be.

Years ago, the family farm was thriving. They had vegetables, carabao (buffalo), cows, chickens — enough to live decently. But everything changed when Ryza’s parents decided to give their daughters a better chance in life.

They sold their old home from the farm so Ryza and her sister wouldn’t have to walk through mud and rain to get to school. With that money, they started building a modest new house closer to the road.

Then came more tragedy. Ryza’s father, the strong man who worked the land, fell severely ill with tuberculosis (TBC). He grew too weak to farm, and medical costs forced the family to pawn even more land.

Despite their struggles, Ryza’s parents did everything to protect their daughters. Ryza never even worked in the fields because her parents wanted her to focus on her studies. They kept her in university for four years, scraping together daily bus fares, school fees, and food — even as the farm slipped further away.

Ryza's Parents:

Last year, in a desperate move, the family sold even their carabao — the essential animal a farmer needs for plowing fields. For a farmer to sell his buffalo…it means there is truly nothing left.

And after all this debt, their house is still not great by todays modern standards, but is a bit better than what they had, actually here is a video of their actual house now

Then, around the time of our wedding in April 2025, Ryza’s father became gravely ill again with a more aggressive form of TBC. He was coughing blood. I paid for his medicine, and thank God, he is stable now, though still recovering.

Today, Ryza’s family is nearly at rock bottom. They have no running water and carry heavy 20-liter bottles daily for drinking, washing, cooking, and even flushing the toilet. They were cooking with firewood or charcoal they make themselves, which takes enormous effort, recently we bought a gas bottle and connected to a portable 2 burner cooker.

Now, Ryza’s younger sister Ann is about to start university. The family has no money for tuition, transport, books, or daily living costs. Ryza and I have helped as much as we can, but we’re newly married ourselves, living off savings, and planning to move to Romania to start our life together. I have no job yet, and our savings are disappearing fast. We paid the first year of University, but still si much more expenses to come and another 3 years tuition to pay.

Ryza's syster:

The land is pawned in two parts. If we don’t repay the smaller loan by March 2026, the family loses that piece of land forever. The larger piece will be lost the year after if we can’t save it. We’re terrified of losing the land that Ryza’s family worked hard for it — the same land her parents sacrificed everything to keep.

Here is a video with the pawned land:

We dream of helping Ryza’s family recover the farm, buy back a carabao so they can farm again, and keep Ann in university. We believe God brought us together and will help us find a way — but we also know we can’t do this alone.

We both believe in God and we hope he will make everything happen for us, we don’t know how, but he will make miracles, God bless everyone!

We started creating content online, hoping to earn income that way, but it’s a slow process, and time is running out for the farm. A friend suggested we try GoFundMe — so here we are.

We have posted two videos on GoFoundMe: one short summary of the problem and a longer one showing the farmland we’re fighting to save. It’s such a peaceful, beautiful place, and it would break our hearts to lose it.

If you find it in your heart to help, no amount is too small. Even a few dollars can help keep Ryza’s family’s dream alive.

Thank you for reading our story. Thank you for caring. May God bless you for your kindness.

I wake up one night at 3am due to not being used with the noise of the rain, is rainy season here and it rains like this sometimes even every night, and I decided to film so you guys have a feeling of the raw Philippine experience. I filmed because is different and many people form more developed countries would see this in a different light, but for Ryza and her family this is every day life.