UPDATE: JUNE 2024

Since launching our fundraiser for our friend we have been very grateful to all who have donated to this page and shared it too. We are still working to secure the target and so we continue to ask that you share this page and donate to it if you are able.

After returning home since being in the UK, our friend has found themselves having a lot of family and medical expenses to cover for to their grandmother, who is unfortunately in and out of hospital at the moment. It continues to be a very difficult time for our friend and their family, who are not sure what to do, as their grandmother's condition is unknown and treatment is costly. Our friend is also still managing and having to cover the cost of their own treatment for chronic pain and a now diagnosed hernia, and ways of managing these. This is expensive and the bureaucracy is very long. Because of the nature of Guatemala's healthcare system, both of these situations are proving to be very costly, and though our friend is trying to find work, this will not be able to cover everything.

So we continue to ask that you can donate to this page and share it too, and if you are aware of any funds or collectives that can give large donations to our friend, to put us in touch. We are continuing to fundraise for:

- medical expenses (now for our friend's sick grandmother, as well as our friend)

- flight repayments

- living expenses for our friend and their family

- education-related debt

ORIGINAL MESSAGE (Feb 2024):

We are raising money for our dear friend who is returning home this month. Our friend is a kind, generous and beautiful person both inside and out, and is now needing her community's help over the next few months whilst returning and settling home. Our friend is a deeply talented artist and writer and we want to raise enough money for her to be able to continue her work at home.

Whilst being in the UK, our friend has had to navigate the Home Office's hostility, unstable housing and finding work - all whilst dealing with her own medical issues. Of course, her body didn't respond well to any of this stress, and throughout her time here she has been experiencing harsh chronic pain. She has had to bear numerous hospital appointments and visits to A&E, and has been dismissed by doctors, given strong medication to steady (but not solve) her symptoms, and has had to deal with her pain worsening and spreading over time. We are hoping and praying that once she is home, our friend can get the medical treatment she needs, and have the time & resources that she deserves in order to be able to decompress, heal and build her life.

Our friend is a carer and has a family at home that she has to look after and partially provide for. She also has debt from pursuing higher education that she needs to finish repaying. For these reasons, we are raising this amount of money to cover:

- medical expenses

- flight repayments

- living expenses for 3 months for her and her family

- education-related debt

- art supplies and a computer to start working and be stable

Thank you for reading this far… we are very grateful to everybody that can share, support or donate. It means a lot <3

P.S. please get in touch with lali.gg58@gmail.com if you would like to be in touch with our friend about her art, or if you would like to see and purchase artwork that she is trying to sell.