Family in need about to lose their Home

Good day

We are desperate and urgently need your assistance. Illness, the current pandemic and bad economic situation in South Africa has negatively affected my family and we are on the brink of losing the home we are renting and will be out on the street and homeless. Therefore we are pleading with you today, even if you can only find it in your heart to donate R 10 or $1 it will help us tremendously.

We have just been given notice to either pay the arrears rent as well as the new months rent, or move out and have nowhere to go. We are desperate. Please help. My husband will not survive. We need to pay R 3500 $200 the end of this month or we will be evicted. The arrears on rent is R 14 000 $800. Our utility bill is on average R 2000 $114 per month. We live in a rural town without a functioning hospital and have already sold what we could including our car.

My husband's health is deteriorating and the stress is affecting him negatively. In 2019 he spend 3 months in hospital due to numerous health issues.We need R 1 000 $57 by the 12th of each month to get his chronic medication. We cannot get it through the government as they only give paracetamol for pain which does not work for his TN. The nearest medical doctor is 55 km away and we have no transport or money.

Below is a list of all his different medical problems:

He had his first heart attack at age 42 and has had 6 in total. He is only 59 years old now.4 Stents was placed since the first heart attack. He subsequently only has 40% heart function left and has heart failure. Photos of his heart report attached.

He was injured at work and has had 3 back operations and one neck operation as result of this. Currently he has a broken vertebrae in his back and one screw that has broken. Due to his poor health an operation is out of the question.He was also placed on disability pension as he could no longer work. See photo's of his x-rays and report.

He has Diabetes 2 and is on daily insulin injections and is supposed to eat 6 meals a day, which unfortunately we cannot maintain as we do not have the finances. His blood sugar constantly drops very low, below 3.

He has essential tremors and the only medication that works affects his heart rate making it drop to below 50 and the doctors took the medication away. This is now a daily struggle as stress increases the tremors.

He has Trigeminal Neuralgia or otherwise called the Suicide disease which is extreme face pain so debilitating that he sometimes can’t eat or talk due to the pain. Unfortunately for him he has it in all three branches of his nerves in his face which is not that common. The medication is at maximum that his body can handle and had to be adjusted when he spend the 3 months in hospital.The only alternative they can do is Botox injections into his face. He had it done last year and then again at the beginning of March and were supposed to go again in June. Unfortunately a lot happened and we had to cancel the appointment. The Botox alone is R 4,000 / $235 every three months.

Due to all the above he also suffers from depression for which he uses medication. Some of the medication also helps with his Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Our monthly co-payment on the medication is roughly R 1000 $57 which we need by the 12th. See photo of his script.

I am also on disability pension as I had 5 back operations since I was 15 as I have scoliosis.The last operation was in 2017 where rods was placed from T1 to S1 as well as ilium screws. Due to complications from a previous operation where 5 screws perforated my spinal column I had a (CFC) spinal fluid leak and infection in my spinal column. The doctors are surprised that I am still walking. Since the operation and due to the antibiotics that I had to drink for three months post-op I had stomach ulcers and a virus in my stomach and throat. Subsequently my stomach valves have thickened and I struggle to eat.I struggle to keep anything down and constantly throw up. Photo of my x ray attached.

We stay with my daughter Shalla and her Husband Jan together with his two brothers Johann and Wessel. In 2019 they opened a small health shop, which had to close.

The youngest brother Wessel was doing Handy-man jobs around town while Johann and Shalla worked at the Health shop. Both Jan and Wessel are actively involved in the community with helping the community police and assisting the police to keep our small little town/village safe.

Everything fell apart when the lock-down started in March as the health shop had to close and Wessel could not do any handy-man jobs.Unfortunately due to my husband’s illness and hospitalization we have no savings left.

Now we are only trying to survive on my husband’s government disability grant which was R1,700 $97 and is now R1,950 $111. The increase is only temporary for 6 months. We already had to sell our car far below what it was worth just in order to survive. The rent alone is R 3,500 and we are already a few months behind. We are struggling daily with food and utilities.

The adult children are all unemployed and cannot find any work. We are behind in rent and struggle to put food on the table and keep the house. We need to pay R 3500 the end of this month or we will be evicted.

Please find it in your heart to assist us. My family tried to assist as far as they could, but can no longer assist. We have nowhere else to turn to. Today I am begging for assistance.

If you need any medical records or any proof I will gladly forward it to you.

For the cost of living in South Africa you can go to https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/country/south-africa

Yours sincerely

Kisha & Reuben Els