Hi everyone,

My name is Jesse, otherwise known as WorkdayChart104. I am a friend of the One Week at Flumpty's dev team. I am organizing this fundraiser on behalf of my friends who are currently trapped in what feels like an impossible financial and legal situation.

Over the past year, Mikhail (also known as Sip/Sipliy_Makasin), Andriana Mantidfly (lead composer of the team), and a few others relocated to Montenegro to escape the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Now, due to tightening visa regulations that cancel visa-free stays for Russian citizens starting November 1st of this year, they face imminent deportation back to Russia.

For them, returning means the very real and terrifying threat of forced military conscription. Tragically, this has already happened to one of the team members, Mtt23. Despite being medically unfit, he was illegally drafted, pressured into signing a contract, and lost his life in late July (you can read Mtt23's story here: https://gamejolt.com/p/i-really-hoped-i-wouldn-t-have-to-write-this-post-iurseuax). Also note that Andriana is transgender, and people like her are now outlawed and sometimes forced to detransition in Russia, so she would suffer twice as much as others upon returning there.

The only thing that can save the team from this is securing Montenegrin residency before the time limit runs out. However, this process requires funds they simply do not have.

Here is what Mikhail himself has to say about their current situation:

"For many of us, the relocation was incredibly sudden. We didn't have the time or resources to prepare a solid long-term plan, and much of what we did plan completely fell apart. While a couple of us have remote jobs we secured before moving, the rest didn't get such chance.

To get a legal, stable job here, you need residency. But the combined income from everything we got right now isn't enough to cover all the costs to get said residency. Right now the main roadblock is getting a notarized rental contract for all of us, which requires renting an apartment and paying 3x the rent price and also paying the notary, and that adds up to a lot.

On top of this, our health is rapidly failing. Andriana and another close friend (who organized our relocation) are dealing with severe heart problems that have drastically worsened due to the unbearable stress related to everything surrounding us.

Andriana's health has worsened a lot since moving. She's suffering from arthrosis, has constant chronic migranes, sometimes her limbs go numb and stop moving randomly. Some of her teeth broke and she can't fix them. Also she lost almost her entire family in last couple years, which has left an unhealable mark on her mental health.

The other friend suffers from ischemia and is experiencing heart episodes every few days from even minor stresses that result in them temporarily losing counsciousness and us having to constantly keep an eye on them so they don't suffocate during one of those episodes

Right now, we simply don't have the money for proper, long-term medical care beyond buying basic medicine that only help in the moment, making it even more difficult for us to survive.

I understand we chose this path by fleeing our home in a rush with limited resources. It was our responsibility to prepare better, and I admit we made mistakes. But we also faced a lot of circumstances entirely out of our control, and systemic hurdles placed in front of us simply because of our citizenship.

For the past few months, our lives have been pure survival. Hard physical work, making a lot of risky stress-inducing decisions in an attempt to win time, experiencing hunger, dealing with our physical and mental health constantly declining and not being able to do much about it, and continuing to develop OWaF - all while living in constant fear and the feeling that we will never have a normal life again. The team members who aren't here in Montenegro can confirm that development has slowed down significantly, but hasn't stopped. We kept pushing because we want to finish the game and keep our promise to the fans. In hindsight, this might have been a mistake, as we spent time on the game when we should have been doing things to ensure our survival.

We did everything we could, but after a series of unavoidable expenses, our team is drowning in heavy debt. We aren't asking you to cover these debts for us - we will handle that ourselves once we are back on our feet and out of survival mode. However, a small portion of the funds will go toward covering the most critical, urgent payments so we don't lose our current housing.

The funds raised will go directly toward:

+ Securing residency for 3 people and covering all related legal document fees.

+ Renting an apartment with a notarized rental contract and acquiring the said contract.

+ Urgent medical check-ups, prescriptions, and long-term treatments.

+ Minimum basic groceries and living essentials.

+ Covering a fraction of our most urgent, critical debts.

+ A contingency "Plan B" fund in case things get worse and we are forced to relocate to another country.

This fundraiser is a plea for help, created just to buy us time until the end of the year so we can legalize our status and start rebuilding our lives. We tried to handle this on our own for a long time, but with the current time limit and everything piling up, we realize we need a miracle. We will be endlessly grateful to anyone who can help. Thanks in advance.

As the organizer based in the United States, I (Workday) will withdraw these funds to my personal US bank account and transfer them directly to Mikhail in Montenegro to ensure the team gets the help they need immediately.