My name is Anica and I am 47 years of age .

For 3 years now I have been fighting, every single day to regain finacial stability.

3 years of sleepless nights , anxiety , panic attacks and constant fear. 

Every day the worry - is it going to work out ? What if it doesnt ? 
Every day and night the fear to loose our house, our future, where would we go , would we end up homeless? 

3 years ago our world started to fall apart . 
Corona took our businesses , mine because I couldnt travel abroad as a selfemployed contracter for the hospitality and my husbands business as an selfemployed exporter and forwarder , because of harbour lockdowns, loss of goods that got stuck in the lockdowns and costumer bankruptcies that left us with unpaid bills from them and no money to pay our own bills.
We lost almost all our income and our savings where melting like snow in the sun. 

After 14 years of selfemployment it seemed to be impossible to get a job, no workhistory, no "skills", no diplomas to show in a country we barely spoke the language. 
The only jobs we found were badly paid and temporary. 

It helped pay bills and kept a roof over our heads, but it was never enough. 

We fought , we learned new skills and got other jobs , a bit better paid every time. 

We  minimized spending, but had a lot of contracts and business expenses we could not get out of. 
Contracts needed to be paid , insurances,the storage place , until the contracttime expired  .
The fees for not fulfilled contracts, as some goods got stuck in harbours that were on lockdown and the fees for "parking" those goods at the harbours,  nothing was covered by the insurance  as nobody had ever foreseen such a situation and they didnt pay out.

And then there were still the taxes and communal bills 

At the end of 2020 we had lost all our savings and were neck deep in debts.

We were paying of little by little,we had  negotiated the amounts with creditors and made payment agreements. 

We stuck tightly to our budget plan to be able to reduce our debts as fast as possible.

And then the next strike , my husband broke down - emotionally and mentally as well as physically. 
It had been hard for both of us , but I think for him it hit even worse, loosing his dad and a niece to Corona and not being able to say Goodbye, due to lockdowns and travelrestrictions.

What compounded upon this, was that the only jobs he could get where physicall very demanding and his body couldnt take it anymore.

He had developed Depression, sleeping problems and physical problems with his back and knee. 
He had to quit working to recover and to focus on getting better.
While doing so he went back to learning skills online, helping out with the things he could do and working on his company again to maybe revive it

This reduced the incoming money drastically and we had to renegotiate a few payment agreements to be able to keep paying our running bills. 

We managed . 

Then the payment of an agreement with the tax was paid to late,  due to a breakdown of our Bank services ( software glitch ) and  part of my salary was seized before we could prevent it.
And even though they gave it back and we could proof we had paid in time,  payment agreements were paid late, so one after the other the creditors came back to wanting the open amounts at once , threatening seizure of property , our home.. 

We reached out to the county for help and got assistance from debt help and 
a "pause" of payment for 2 month , during which we could figure out where to go from here. 
We are not qualifying for a loan , because of our debts and the County cant help us with a credit to pay the debtors, as we own a house.

There is the option to come up with 30.000 to be able to negotiate with the creditors to settle for a part payback and then we are free of debts or at least have the chance to pay the remainder in installments. 

But here is the problem , we dont have 30.000 Euro or the means to get it .
I cant even go to the dentist to fully fix a broken tooth, because we cant afford the bill .
My husband probably needs a therapy for his back, but we cant afford that either.
We checked with banks , lenders , nobody wants to lend us money as we are a “ risk ” and dont make enough money.
We could come up so far with 3450 Euro but that is all .
Friends and family have given what they can.


Now I am sitting here , at 4:30 in the morning, looking around the house , thinking , we will loose all this …
Its not an expensive house or big and still needs a lot of work, but we worked hard to be able to get it and its our home. 

I cant help but to feel bone deep fear .
We are 47 and 50 years old , this will destroy us, we will end up homeless.

I have never asked for anything in my life before, but I am asking now . 

Please find it in your heart to help us, please .

Any amount moves us furher away from this disaster.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul for any assistance you are willing to provide,

gratefully, Anica  
 

To all the Friends , Colleagues and former Colleagues who donated to help us - you have given us the greates Gift in the world - Hope 

Thank you so so much