Brutal Attack on Lesbian Couple - Immigration Help Needed

Hello, my name is Louise, I’m fundraising for my dear friend Ronel Alberts and her wife Elsjé who fled to Canada 11 years ago from South Africa due to brutal violence. Here is their story:

Ronel and Elsje lived on a farm in South Africa.

On September 21, 2011, Ronel was brutally attacked in the early hours of the morning by four black men armed with an axe and a pistol. She was savagely beaten, gagged with her own shirt, tied up, and left unconscious to bleed out from vicious axe wounds on her skull and legs. She suffered severe heart contusions, lost tremendous amounts of blood, and was left for dead. Ronel managed to free herself and eventually phone the police. The four men who attacked Ronel were never sought, and no charges were ever laid.

In addition to the psychological trauma that returning to South Africa would bring upon Ronel, the couple is deeply aware that they would be under persecution and threat in the country because of being lesbians, as much as for their Afrikaner heritage. Race-based attacks and gender-based violence in South Africa, particularly towards the 2SLGBTQAI+ community has been prevalent for years. Being lesbians also puts them in extreme danger due to the frequency of the barbaric practice of “corrective rape,” whereby men rape gay women to “rectify” their sexuality. The U.S. Department of State offers numerous reports of South African police officers raping lesbians and other women. Ronel and Elsje both suffer from severe and unresolved PTSD from the attack.

It has taken 11 years of recurring immigration applications for them in Canada to finally be approved on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds in 2024. In the meantime, legal bills have amassed due to their ineligibility to work legally. They have been supported by friends throughout these years but have also spent most of their time volunteering on behalf of many other marginalized communities (First Nations, Advancement of Women and Girls in STEM, the unhoused, Arts and Heritage, the elderly, their local food bank, troubled youth, their church, and IT support for underserved organisations). These ladies are desperate to contribute positively to the Canadian economy and professional labour shortage. They are exactly the people that Canada needs.

Since their arrival in June of 2014, both Ronel and Elsje have demonstrated a profound desire to integrate and be of benefit to Canadian society. Canada’s justice system and support of the 2SLGBTQAI+ community made Canada an honest and reflective choice as a refuge from the persecution and danger that Ronel and Elsjé face in South Africa. They immediately applied for immigration on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds in 2014, but Canada’s Immigration department only saw fit to accept their application in July of 2024. They have not yet been approved for work permits and Permanent Residency.

Ronel and Elsje have lived in the safety and security of the Abbotsford, BC community and have made significant contributions to their establishment within the local community. Despite extremely limited financial means, they have drawn on friendships and their own resourcefulness to not impose on social assistance (which they do not qualify for, including MSP). They have received no government assistance whatsoever.

These highly educated and professional women bring a unique set of educational and employment talents that will be of great benefit to Canada. Ronel is a qualified IT Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Web Designer. Elsje has extensive experience in senior business management. Both Ronel and Elsje have valuable skills which are highly beneficial to the Canadian labour market.

Ronel and Elsje have been together for more than 26 years and were finally married in Canada in December 2018. They have established a “family of choice” here and have no means of surviving in South Africa. Ronel left home as a young woman due to neglect, and physical and sexual abuse, and has no contact or ties to her birth family. Elsje’s father is 95 years old and is not able to offer any support, neither can her brother or sister, from whom she is estranged. Elsje’s mother passed away in 2021, but Elsje’s fear of violence in South Africa has prevented her from returning to visit her mother’s grave.

I am starting this GoFundMe to help with the crippling amount of outstanding legal fees holding them back from their goal to start their new working lives. If we can’t raise these funds the application process cannot continue and they will be deported back to South Africa, a country that does NOT want them and poses extreme danger to Afrikaners and lesbians.

Thank you for holding Ronel and Elsje in your hearts. Let us help them start a new life of safety and security, and prevent their extremely traumatic deportation back to South Africa.