Hi, I am trying to raise funds for a good friend and his family who find themselves in crippling dept overseas. Their story in their own words is below:

Neurodivergent Interracial family has $32,000.00 USD in medical debt

Hello to whomever this may reach. The short of our story is that we’re an interracial, neurodivergent US family located overseas, with a young daughter and one physically disabled family member, trying to pay off crushing debt--accrued due to some medical emergencies and other unexpected whammies--and pay for some needed procedures and physical therapy. While Rob's pension is enough to live on and keep collecters at bay, it's not enough to get us out of debt in any reasonable number of years.

Our long-term eventual solution to avoid future debt (once we get this current debt paid down) is to relocate to Brazil--where it is just as affordable as where we are, but where we would have access to more work opportunities, and where we have friends willing to help get us set up once we get there.

Longer version:

In 2018 the two of us moved to overseas from the US to make Rob's disability payments stretch further, and because we saw the upheaval coming in the US. As recently as 2020, before any Covid complications, Rob was physically active and in generally good health other than needing a cane at times. A story he'd written had just been licensed for use in a mobile game, which provided additional income (classified as "unearned" by Social Security), and looked like a long-lasting opportunity with good potential. So when our daughter was born during COVID lockdown five years ago, we were debt-free, with money in the bank, and no reason to think that situation would change.

A few weeks after our daughter was born, though, the project was cancelled after just one year, cutting off the licensing fees. Even so, we would have been okay financially with just Rob's pension, until some other unexpected events (Note: We had a previous fundraiser for all of this that had to be ended before we hit goal, due to personal issues on the part of the person running it for us.)--

1) Rob had several bouts of COVID, some requiring hospitalization, and at one point had to spend an entire month on an oxygen machine. In addition to medication and doctor's visits, we had to purchase home medical equipment and mobility aids for him, including, but not limited to, an oxygen concentrator and cuff crutches. Although fully vaccinated now, he caught COVID the first time before vaccines were available here, which set him up for further infections. He is making progress towards getting off of crutches, but it's going to take more treatment before there's any chance of him leaving them permanently behind.

2) An error on our daughter's birth certificate (she was born overseas, remember) left her officially stateless, which kicked off a long, expensive legal battle. Even with generous donations, the fallout (detailed below) from this still drained our savings and put us in debt. (We didn't know this at the time, but it is notoriously difficult to correct a birth certificate here--We have a local friend in his forties who is STILL trying to get his fixed.)

The citizenship issue was especially a problem because it happened just as our visas were expiring during lockdown,meaning we were required to travel out of the country and back in to reset our time. Our daughter, however, would not have been able to travel with us--because no citizenship anywhere meant no passport. Since entry rules where we are were constantly changing during lockdown, with no advance warning (sometimes leaving people stranded), there was no guarantee we'd be able to return to her if we left to reset our allotted time, so for two years we made regular trips to immigration to beg for exceptions, and paid hefty overstay fees that further drained our savings. Once we got Eleanor's citizenship straightened out, we had to pay three years worth of visa and overstay fees for her all at once.

Even with the generous donations from the aforementioned previous fundraising campaign, all of this drained our savings and left us deeply in debt. We didn't want to ask for any more help once we got Eleanor's citizenship fixed, since that was our biggest concern, but with the debt from that debacle combined with medical expenses, realistically, we need a leg up to get over this hump.

For some background about us as people: Rob is autistic, with ADHD, an upper spine injury that affects his right arm and causes chronic pain, osteoarthritis, and complications due to long COVID--including partial loss of vision. Zoey has ADHD and a chronic inflammatory condition called endometriosis (controlled with medication), and is primary caretaker for both Rob and their 5 year old daughter Eleanor. Eleanor is an extremely bright, curious, and spirited five-year-old who wants to be a doctor, an astronaut, and a rock star when she grows up.