Hello
My names Gareth and I'm being Robbed. Before I begin this plea, I'd like to point out that I'm not asking for money to pay a phone bill. I'll manage that. This is a charity plea which will all make sense eventually, so please read it all and stay with me…..

After a difficult year of relationship break ups, and family illness I decided to take a break. Central America was the ultimate destination but I made a trip to one of my favourite cities to get into the travelling vibe and hang about with some great friends. It was amazing. However. On the first night I ran into a group of transgendered individuals who felt they needed all of my stuff without asking for permission. They surrounded me, groped me, held me there and took my phone. I only realised it had gone after busting out of the group and getting away, pretty quickly!
  It occurred to me that the life of a transgendered sex worker living in Barcelona cant be that great. I found this article about a trans sex worker just now:

http://groundup.org.za/content/life-transgender-sex-worker

 I was about to take an amazing and exotic trip. Travelling, relaxing and having a generally good time. I could afford to get a new phone and when I get home my family would welcome me with open arms on christmas day. I wondered what the thief people might be doing during the whole of this time and realised that my phone was just stuff….so….forget it I thought.

  When I arrived in belize I was shocked to find that Orange/EE had attempted to take over £500 from my account (which I managed to retrieve thanks to Natwest). The thieves had used my phone enough to rack up this massive bill. I guess they wouldn't of known? and neither would I.

I tried to report my phone as stolen straight away in Barcelona. You cant do it on the website. You have to call, which turned out to be pretty difficult in a foreign country with no phone. The EE shop couldn't help ( I guess I wasn't buying ). Whoever's in charge of the payphones in Barcelona needs to get a new day job too.

When I returned from my travels I found that my phone wouldn't take incoming calls.  Not because of the bill. Its just a fault. Apparently orange are finding very difficult to rectify and I'm not entitled to any compensation. Apparently I still owe the £500+. Apparently I can't cancel my contract even though they haven't kept up their part of the bargain. I'd have to pay around £350 just to leave the dud contract.

Anyway…It looks like I'm going to have to pay up. I'd like to buy a house at some stage and a poor credit rating isn't going to do me any favours. Its a strange world.

…….ANYWAY…… I had a thought…..To some how cosmically offset this tragic misjustice, I felt it might be a good idea to support a charity that deals with the problems facing vunerable individuals. Its a pretty bad situation when you feel you have to steal or sell your body to get by because you intrinsically need to be who you are. As do we all. I looked at trans support charities and found.... well.... not much. This is telling no? 

  In the end I opted for a childrens charity. Children are being trafficked and sold into the sex industry. If they're not vunerable individuals I don't know who is? 

IN CONCLUSION 

 The phone companies who are profiting from other peoples misfortunes are the real muggers here. They've got us all at knife point and are shaking us down.

I'll have to give them my money, but I'd like to match it, to re align and re order and re balance. I'm no cosmic wizard but I think this might be a thing that we can all contribute too.
  I am basically not letting the bastards grind me down. I'm standing in solidarity with one of the most misunderstood and exploited minorities. I don't blame them. Everyday 'normal' people, are people with less than nothing these days. We have to stick together, even when somebody's been a bit a bit of a dick (by stealing your phone say). Its not the people on the end of the phone at orange, its not the transgender prostitutes or even really the traffic wardens. Its the entities like Orange that are making us all want to hurt each other and take from one another. Because all they do is shake us down and leave us with nothing.

Help me to help someone who obviously needs it, and lets say 'get bent' to the ones who don't.

Now I realise this charity choice doesn't quite add up. But I figured that we should be helping the most vulnerable people before they have to take these difficulties on as an adult. Do something towards the next lot. It feels like it might have a greater impact in the long run. If some of these people had help earlier then maybe they wouldn't of needed to go through everything that some people do up to their adult life. I think all of these issues are close to all of our hearts. I hope you agree and I hope that this puts a few things into perspective like it has for me.

I want to reach £550. Almost the same as my phone bill, thus rebalancing the troubles of the world.

Thankyou
Gareth