Hi there, my name is Otto Duran, I'm 29 years old from Colombia and have been living in Canada for the last 10 years.

On March 1st, on my way back home from work, I was a victim to an unprovoked assault that threatened my life and has me now in the hospital for rehabilitation. I was stabbed twice in the back of my neck (One on the left and one of the right) which scraped my spinal cord and left me mostly immobile for around a week and half, and still having effects that we still don't know for how long they will last.

I'm currently going through rehabilitation, but progress is slow and I'm still unable to work. Thanks to my family's support, I was able to pay rent this month, but given they are living in Colombia they are paying essentially triple to quadruple the amount. I have to preface this part by explaining that I am not a Canadian resident yet and have been waiting on my permanent residency application for almost a year now and have not got a response yet. I have applied for insurance, both employer and medical, and neither of those have given me any help yet.

Now here's the kicker, those insurances work with work permits, and mine is about to expire in May 5th. I applied for an extension back in October of last year, and for some reason they only gave me time until May 5th. Now in this condition and being unable to work, even if I apply for another extension (which I will and am in the process of it) I fear that the moment May 5th hits, all those insurances will be null and I wont have any kind of funds to pay rent, buy food, charges from immigration applications (such work permit extensions or paperwork needed for my PR) or even pay for any bills the hospital throws at me.

I am thankful for my family supporting me, but we have never had too much money ourselves, and really dont want them to go into debt because of me... so I fall upon anyone that is reading this and is able and willing to help; even if you can't, I thank you for even the little bit of time you have taken out of your life to read this. I know Im not exactly the best at explaining myself, and with the sensation in my hands as it is, just typing this much has taken forever, but know that I wish I didn't have to put this burden upon anyone else.

I only wish to be able to help others like you guys, and I am really REALLY grateful to each of you reading.

Again... Thank you