Vali's Trucking School and Rent

Hi, my name is Vali and I'm fundraising for my trucking class and monthly bills while I wait to start my next job.

I was born and grew up in Iran. In 2008, my company fired me from a welding job after my finger was accidentally cut off by a welding machine. I stopped being a Muslim and became a Christian. The Iranian government arrested me, broke my leg, and gave me 83 lashes because of my change of religion. In 2012, I escaped my home country because I was in fear for my life. I ran away to Malaysia, then Indonesia, and I took a boat to Australia in 2013. After a few months of trying to find a safe place to live, the Australian border police put me in detention on Nauru Island.

I broke my foot in 2016 while playing volleyball in Nauru. Doctors there put two screws in my foot using rudimentary medical equipment. The surgery wasn't successful because they didn't have an x-ray machine in detention. This botched surgery ended up causing my foot extreme pain for the next five years until the screws were taken out. During this time, I was still in detention. They removed the screws in 2021 before I came to the U.S. I participated in a hunger strike for 13 days to get my freedom.

On September 22, 2021, the Australian government released me from nine years of detention and I traveled to the United States as a refugee. Since moving to the U.S., I worked at an auto body shop at a construction welding company.

I had to stop welding to get surgery on my foot. My doctor put 6 screws in my foot that took me a half year to recover from. Unfortunately, all the bones in my foot did not grow back together. My foot is better, but not completely healed. I still have chronic pain and am unable to weld heavy beams anymore.

Recently, I started taking a truck driver's class so that I can start driving a truck. I live in a small studio basement apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My monthly rent is $500. My class is costing $4,500. I can't ask my family for support because they barely earn enough to pay their own bills as Iran is in an economic and political crisis. I would like to raise enough money to cover two months of rent and the cost of the class, which will come to about $5,500. I am asking for help to help me pay my monthly bills and class until I'm able to start truck driving.

Thank you for reading my story.