Our Cause:

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After years of hard work, government lockdowns, discrimination and corporate malpractice my family has finally reached breaking point. Due to our circumstances which I will discuss later in this story I am unable to secure the living conditions and health treatment my parents desperately need. I am a single 31 year old man from South Africa whose parents sacrificed everything for him to escape and make his way to Ireland to work and obtain citizenship, they were successful and I now live and work in Ireland which we are grateful for.

Following this it was decided for their safety and well being that my parents should make their way over on a work visa and join me so that we may live close together and that I may help take care of them. This was just before COVID struck and my father's business was nearly broken after two years of lockdown in Ireland. Once the lockdown lifted we were relatively lucky, my father's business bounced back although not with the same success as previously and for a time things seemed to be ok. Even better news came when my father applied for a position at a travel company based in the UK called Wings (https://www.wings.travel/) and got hired doing cybersecurity. Things would begin to fall apart shortly after, as his job at Wings took up a lot of his time he could not work on anything else and then came problems, Wings stopped paying him, month after month the money didn't come, eventually they stopped inviting him to meetings and then after months of working without pay my father got the email that he had been let go, the working contract my father had with this company stipulated they needed to give him 2 months notice and they stilled owed him several moths worth of wages but they didn't care.

My father sent messages and letters to Wings and they didn't reply, he demanded they pay him and honour their contract, they didn't care. My father was out of the job without warning and had no money, undeterred he got back into freelance work giving training in cybersecurity, but losing out on about 15,000 euros worth of wages was far too much to handle and my parents began to rely on me for support. I have been supporting my parents for months now and we've been unable to turn things around and my savings are starting to run low and my parents face the prospect of returning to one of the most violent and racially hostile nations on the planet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXJrxM2HPc) with little to no money to their name.

What about the money from Wings you may ask? Surely we could go to a lawyer and make them hand over the money that they owe? Apparently lawyers don't choose cases based on the injustice but how much money they can make from the case. That said in the spirit of transparency I will tell you that there has been some movement on the case one generous lawyer was willing to help so long as we paid their fee and we did. Now some time later we have come to realize that Wings has falsely been using my father's name and credentials to advertise their security compliance and the lawyer pointed out that this was cause for reparations to be made and Wings after months took down my father's credentials from their website. All things said though the legal case has not been resolved and we've paid a lawyer help to reclaim what is owed and as I am sure you may guess this reduces the amount of money my father would receive from a successful judgement if any.

As things stand we soldier on in the hope that things will turn around, that somewhere out of the blue a new opportunity will arise and my father will be at work again or that our legal case will be resolved and we will be awarded the money we are owed as it has been a year now. I must confess it is getting grim, should anything happen to me my father and mother would be destitute and out on the street, on our current course my savings will be slowly reduced to nought and my parents would be forced to return back to South Africa and I would be unable to sufficiently care for them. So I must look to the kindness of strangers to help us in our time of need, it is not something I take lightly, nor would I ask charity for my own benefit but my parents are all I have and I will do anything to help them.

Thank you for reading.

Any contribution would make the difference.

Our Story:

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While the story laid out in the Our Cause section may be looked upon as the immediate reason for seeking aid it does not lay out what we have endured to achieve our humble success and this section shall elucidate so that you may understand the larger picture.

Throughout my lifetime my family has endured numerous setbacks some the product of random chance, others the product of malicious intentions. When I was young my father was forced out of his job at Deloitte as the result of the new Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy, which stipulates that a company must have racial proportional representation amongst workers and leadership with South Africa being a majority black country this meant that my father had to be let go. Thankfully he was skilled and knew what he was doing he was able to set up his own company that gave security training and security consultations and this is how we were able to survive for so long.

With great initial success our opportunities began to dwindle, we were forced to sell everything and move to smaller and smaller homes. Eventually my father could only attain work by using a black frontman for his business with whom he had to give 30% of all earnings to be compliant with government policy and so be able to perform any kind of work. When it came time for me to go to university we had been reduced to so little that my parents had to sell the house and start renting. In order to have any future I had to go outside of South Africa this was in 2013 and in 2013 South Africa had an economic crisis and my student fees effectively doubled in a matter of days. We tried to push through it but we couldn't manage it and so I had to return, I waited for 2 years to get another chance with my father working tirelessly and we managed and I came to Ireland and finished university at the University of Limerick. At this time COVID struck and I couldn't get work and my father struggled on keeping us going.

This brings us up to our current time, where I thankfully have a job but it is too little to support three people on and with the previously discussed pending court case against Wings I fear the worst.

If you made it this far thank you again for taking your time to read our story, anything you could contribute would help.

How will the funds be used?

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These funds will be used to secure accommodation, a good standard of living and provide a safety net should anything happen to me and I am no longer able to support my parents.

My father also suffers from a degenerative bone condition and has lost a portion of his jaw bone as a result if we're really successful we can get that treated.

If by some miracle this fundraiser takes off and we're able to do more than secure my parents and solve their health issues, I will put the money to worthy causes in Ireland as thanks for Ireland taking me in and giving me an opportunity when no one else would.

Questions you may have:

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Q: Why don't you return to South Africa with your parents?

A: South Africa has incredibly discriminatory employment policies that would prevent me from getting a job and providing for my parents. (https://tinyurl.com/3ka5ekez) (https://tinyurl.com/457xn8nt)

Q: Why did you move to Ireland?

A: South Africa is a destabilizing nation with very racial politics, not only are white people discriminated against for employment but I was forced to leave to seek an education as white people are discriminated against in schools as well (https://tinyurl.com/4w7hkedb)