Urgent aid needed for “The Megan’s” journey in Canada.
Donation protected
Hi everyone! If you’ve made it this far, I hope you can give us 10 more minutes of your time as my wife and I are in desperate need of some financial help and we’re now at the point of having to reach out to our friends, family, and even strangers (a million “thank you’s” in advance!).
- To give you some context, Megan and I met in 2017 and got married in the middle of Covid in 2020. We certainly intended on being engaged longer so we could have an official ceremony, but with politics at play and a worldwide pandemic in process, we decided to tie the knot sooner than later.
- As things continued to worsen in the states, Megan and I decided our future safety and rights as a LGBTQ couple were in jeopardy and that it was time to start looking into how we could move to Canada.
- In July of 2021, the entire software development team was laid off at my wife’s company, which unfortunately included her. Not even 3 weeks later I received a job offer that would allow me to transfer to the Canadian side of my company. We thought to ourselves “it’s now or never,” and moved to Canada 2 months later at the end of October.
- We honestly thought Megan would have no problem finding a job in IT in Canada since developers were/are highly sought after, or worse case, she could work remotely for a US company.
- That unfortunately has not been the case, and it’s not for lack of Megan trying. We’ve lost count of the number of applications she has submitted (100’s) or avenues of connections she has attempted with no positive outcome. I’m networking for her as well and keeping an eye out for job opportunities within my company but no luck as of the day this is being posted.
- Being an immigrant in a new country on a work permit and no prior work experience in Canada is just a little slice of the many hurdles she is having to jump over. She’s also at the junior level so that makes finding jobs even trickier. Plus, the majority of businesses have now gone back to hybrid or full time in-office so that makes looking for jobs in the US even more challenging as remote roles are often times only available for senior level roles (not always, but mostly).
- Outside of that, we’ve intentionally stayed away from any jobs that would have a high traffic volume (i.e Retail, Public Facing Roles, etc.) as I am diabetic and having some health-related issues brought on by being immune compromised. But, this seems like an avenue we may be forced to dive into whether it’s ideal or not.
On top of these challenges, I recently experienced a VERY sophisticated Cyber fraud attack and despite me fighting with my bank over the matter for months (I escalated and escalated, even went through the 3rd party complaint process), I will not be getting reimbursed for the over $3,000 CAD that was stolen. What hurts even more is that I work in Cyber insurance, so I know how these threat actors operate and explaining the event to my bank only made matters worse as they had no advice on how to prevent this from happening again (aka we’re here to protect ourselves, not help the customer). There’s many more details to the story, but in short, I’ve taken my business elsewhere and purchased a personal Cyber policy to prevent future matters from happening.
And if that wasn’t enough already, there’s now an additional financial stress layer with finding a primary healthcare provider here in Canada so that Megan and I can get our medications refilled. Healthcare is VERY different in Canada, at least British Columbia, and we’ve been on a wait list for over a year now. During this time, we were able to get refills through our prior doctor in the states (having explained the situation to her), but she has now stopped our refills and requiring that we pay the outstanding balance of $1,400 USD before we can be seen again. This was a total shock to us as our doctor had never mentioned the outstanding balance being an issue before. I do have a temporary solution for virtual healthcare visits here in BC, but it doesn’t cover prescription refills for controlled substances, of which we take on a daily basis…. or did before running out months ago. So, until we have a PCP assigned in the states, we can’t get the ADHD medication refilled…and anyone with ADHD knows how important that medication is to be able to function.
I know our situation may not be as extreme as other’s putting out a Go Fund Me request, but please know the need is REAL and URGENT so we can continue to eat and have a roof over our heads. Moving back to the states is NOT an option for us for many reasons, but the biggest being safety. Any “extra” dollar we have right now is going towards bills in the US, but the currency exchange rate from Canada to the US isn’t 1:1 so that makes it harder to stretch each dollar.
I know the amount below may seem like a lot (I converted everything to US dollars), but it will help get us our medications and put food on the table for the next 3 or so months….in which time we’re hoping something changes with the job situation for Megan.
How can you help??
- If you are able to and feel compelled to help – Donate please!! If you don’t feel comfortable sending money through the Go Fund Me account, message me and we can figure something out.
- Job Opportunities – If you know of someone hiring for a Jr. Backend Developer or any entry level IT role, please message me.
- If you have resources for reviewing and providing feedback on resumes or job interviewing in general for the IT realm, please message me.
- GOAL - $3,765.00 US
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Please let me know how I can return the help!!
Organizer
Megan Gonzales
Organizer
Erie, CO