URGENT: Charity for abuashraf?
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:09 am
Hi OSDev. Returning for a one-off post, because this is important. Please take a minute to read.
I think some of you will remember me as a former regular on this board. But do you remember user abuashraf? He's been on-and-off this board since 2006 (and probably before on MegaTokyo), so you might remember him as well.
Well, here's the point: He's from Syria. Yes, Syria, the country that's been first torn by civil war, and now ransacked by the IS. He's from a particularly war torn area of Syria, and has fallen on some pretty hard times. (There's more to his story than he's writing here, but I won't elaborate to protect his privacy.)
He has the offer to do Master's studies in Germany, getting him out of there and giving him some perspective. For that, he needs to cut some red tape. There are several issues involved, but most importantly, German law requires him to prove he's got the necessary funds not to rely on social welfare once he's here -- without that, he cannot apply for a visa, and until he has that, there is nothing he can do except sitting tight and watch things deteriorate around him.
We -- that's myself, and Andreas, a former coworker of mine -- have been in contact with abuashraf for many weeks now, via e-mail and phone, trying to figure out a way to get him a student's visa, or basically any way to get him out of Syria. We've been talking to employers, friends and colleagues. The employers we've been talking to aren't too keen to spend money to finance someone's studies, of course, be it for a noble cause or not. And neither Andreas nor myself really have the savings in the bank for the necessary deposit, as much as we'd like to. (Again, not telling the whole story for the sake of brevity -- trust us, there has been some serious work going on in this.)
But time is running out for abuashraf, in more ways than one, and so we're ready to take desperate measures. (Not quite as desperate as abuashraf himself might be forced to take, if you get my drift...)
To make a long story short: abuashraf needs to show German officials a cash deposit of about 8000 (eight thousand) Euros to get a visa out of Syria. There will be more costs involved, but that's the big sum we're talking about at this point. We're also not talking about sending that amount to Syria, but rather providing it as security bond (or whatever the English term for that would be...) so German officials give the nod for him to enter the country.
There are people here trusting his sincerity, and willing to part with significant amounts of money to make at least the one person we know get out of the hell that he once called home. (We're not even talking about saving his family, cruel as it may sound...)
But it would be much easier if that load would be spread across more shoulders, which is why I am posting here, where abuashraf was known well before his current situation. (And because kickstarter.com doesn't accept charity.)
I am in the process of setting up an account, asking people to give what they are willing to give, to help out a fellow developer. Full disclosure will be given, of course. I am not giving account details at this point yet, because 1) I don't have them yet, and 2) I'd like to give the admins a chance to give a thumbs-up ("go ahead") or thumbs-down ("we don't want that kind of thing here") first. That's also why I am posting this in the auto-delete forum.
Please ponder this, and consider making (admins: allowing) a donation, large or small, named or anonymous, not to some opaque charity organisation, but to someone you "know" already, who is standing behind this with his name, to help someone in dire need.
Regards,
Martin "Solar" Baute
[email protected]
http://www.rootdirectory.de
----
Donations can be made to the following account:
IBAN: DE63 5007 0024 0373 6972 61
BIC: DEUTDEDBFRA
You can also donate via PayPal to [email protected].
Regular updates on account balance, more information on the case, a definition of goals, stretch goals, and backup plans will all be posted to http://charity.rootdirectory.de as soon as possible. If you know someone who might be willing to donate, point him there.
I think some of you will remember me as a former regular on this board. But do you remember user abuashraf? He's been on-and-off this board since 2006 (and probably before on MegaTokyo), so you might remember him as well.
Well, here's the point: He's from Syria. Yes, Syria, the country that's been first torn by civil war, and now ransacked by the IS. He's from a particularly war torn area of Syria, and has fallen on some pretty hard times. (There's more to his story than he's writing here, but I won't elaborate to protect his privacy.)
He has the offer to do Master's studies in Germany, getting him out of there and giving him some perspective. For that, he needs to cut some red tape. There are several issues involved, but most importantly, German law requires him to prove he's got the necessary funds not to rely on social welfare once he's here -- without that, he cannot apply for a visa, and until he has that, there is nothing he can do except sitting tight and watch things deteriorate around him.
We -- that's myself, and Andreas, a former coworker of mine -- have been in contact with abuashraf for many weeks now, via e-mail and phone, trying to figure out a way to get him a student's visa, or basically any way to get him out of Syria. We've been talking to employers, friends and colleagues. The employers we've been talking to aren't too keen to spend money to finance someone's studies, of course, be it for a noble cause or not. And neither Andreas nor myself really have the savings in the bank for the necessary deposit, as much as we'd like to. (Again, not telling the whole story for the sake of brevity -- trust us, there has been some serious work going on in this.)
But time is running out for abuashraf, in more ways than one, and so we're ready to take desperate measures. (Not quite as desperate as abuashraf himself might be forced to take, if you get my drift...)
To make a long story short: abuashraf needs to show German officials a cash deposit of about 8000 (eight thousand) Euros to get a visa out of Syria. There will be more costs involved, but that's the big sum we're talking about at this point. We're also not talking about sending that amount to Syria, but rather providing it as security bond (or whatever the English term for that would be...) so German officials give the nod for him to enter the country.
There are people here trusting his sincerity, and willing to part with significant amounts of money to make at least the one person we know get out of the hell that he once called home. (We're not even talking about saving his family, cruel as it may sound...)
But it would be much easier if that load would be spread across more shoulders, which is why I am posting here, where abuashraf was known well before his current situation. (And because kickstarter.com doesn't accept charity.)
I am in the process of setting up an account, asking people to give what they are willing to give, to help out a fellow developer. Full disclosure will be given, of course. I am not giving account details at this point yet, because 1) I don't have them yet, and 2) I'd like to give the admins a chance to give a thumbs-up ("go ahead") or thumbs-down ("we don't want that kind of thing here") first. That's also why I am posting this in the auto-delete forum.
Please ponder this, and consider making (admins: allowing) a donation, large or small, named or anonymous, not to some opaque charity organisation, but to someone you "know" already, who is standing behind this with his name, to help someone in dire need.
Regards,
Martin "Solar" Baute
[email protected]
http://www.rootdirectory.de
----
Donations can be made to the following account:
IBAN: DE63 5007 0024 0373 6972 61
BIC: DEUTDEDBFRA
You can also donate via PayPal to [email protected].
Regular updates on account balance, more information on the case, a definition of goals, stretch goals, and backup plans will all be posted to http://charity.rootdirectory.de as soon as possible. If you know someone who might be willing to donate, point him there.