Please Help Our Family While We Wait for the Chance to Start Our Lives Again
Our Refugee application started 540 days ago on the 12th February 2025.
317 days ago, our family was scheduled to leave South Africa and begin a new life in the United States through the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
We had completed a lengthy screening and approval process, including travelling approximately 3,000 km for our processing. After receiving our approval, we were given just 15 days to prepare for departure.
We believed the long wait was finally over.
We prepared our family, left our home, stepped away from our work, and made major life decisions around the scheduled departure tickets in hand!. We committed everything to the move, Most posesions were gifted away as there was no time to sell eveything, believing we were finally going to safety and a new beginning. We were preparing to leave with only the limited luggage permitted for our journey and some life savings.
Then, just three days before our scheduled departure, our flight was cancelled.
We received an email advising us not to make drastic changes, but by that point, it was already too late. We had fully committed to the move and had already made decisions that could not simply be reversed., we already moved 700km to be close to the airport the week before the scheduled departure for the Teusday.
That was 317 days ago — 45 weeks and 2 days.
And we are still waiting.although the agency have told us new tickets will be issued as soon as the Goverment shutdown ends! our case has continued through the refugee processing system, including additional medical requirements and further processing, but we remain stranded in South Africa without a clear departure date.
Our second medical examination has now reached the end of its validity period, meaning that if travel does not happen soon, we may have to undergo the medical process for a third time. This can take up to 6 months!
We have reached a point of utter desperation!
During these 317 days, we have experienced enormous financial hardship.
We lost our income. We have now completely depleted our life savings.
We are now struggling to provide even the most basic necessities of everyday life.
The prolonged uncertainty and severe stress have also taken a serious toll on our family.
My wife now requires a surgical procedure after a previously existing dermoid cyst became inflamed and requires surgical excision. We are now facing medical expenses at a time when we are already struggling to afford food and basic living costs.
Our family also includes our young son, who is on the autism spectrum and has additional special needs. He depends heavily on us, making the uncertainty and instability particularly difficult.
We are doing everything we can to keep our family together and get through this period with dignity.
Why we are asking for help?
We never expected to be asking strangers for help.
We expected to be working, rebuilding our lives and contributing to our new community in the United States by now.
Instead, we are still waiting.
We are raising funds to help cover:
Food and basic living expenses
Temporary accommodation and household necessities
Transportation
Medical and surgical expenses
Communication and administrative costs related to our ongoing case
Other essential expenses while we remain unable to rebuild our lives
We are not asking for money to live a better lifestyle. We are asking for help to survive an extraordinary period of uncertainty that has now lasted 317 days.
Every contribution, regardless of size, can make a real difference to our family.
If you cannot donate, please consider sharing our fundraiser. One share could reach someone who can help—or someone who knows someone who can.
We simply want the opportunity to finish the journey we started, reach the safety and future we were approved and ticketed for, and finally build a stable, productive life for our family.
Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read our story, share it, pray for us, or contribute.
317 days waiting. stuck preverbially on the tarmac!
One family trying to hold on with Faith, hope and love.
