Let me tell you about a really dark period in our life. Due to flaws in the system of the country where we lived, we became in trouble. My boyfriend was an entrepreneur and he became in financial trouble when he had to move his company from a village to his hometown. This was because his mother was going to die, and he wanted to be able to take care of her.
So he made the choice to run the business from home. This was not good for his income, too many other company’s competing with his business. After a few years he asked for help, and he got this as a kind of welfare for businesses, when the business wouldn’t be able to survive, this would be a gift instead of a loan.
If this would be the case, the moment this help ended, would be transported to a private welfare, so not much, but at least it was something. Then the trouble started. Due to a bit of debts with rent of the house, they wanted to evict him from this house. He went to the office several times, to update them about the application that was done at the same city government but a different department. So you would think, it will be fine, right?
6 weeks later or something the eviction date was there, and they still did not approve the application for the welfare. Why? Because we needed to give them bank account copies of accounts that were determinate a while ago. We already explained them several times, and the bank could not help either. We were sent back and forward for weeks in a row.
We could not prevent being evicted, I don’t want to go into the details which made it even harder for me personally right now, I will tell this when I can handle this. Fact was that this city government failed big time, and after months (we had no income for 6 months! And were homeless for a part of this time) finally they admitted after our complained that they had to approved it. But we already lost our house, and much more due to this flaw. They only paid the money from the moment the application was applied by us, so wow we got a bit of money, but had barely any belongings.
There are many things to tell about this period, but what stuck by the most (next to the horrible things that happened to us which I will tell someday when the time feels right) is the help of strangers.. Completely strangers were the people that were the most helpful in this dark period. Not our friends, who kept giving advices of what to do, which steps to take, even after explaining them so many times: we already walked that road!!! Not wanting to see the evidence that we actually did, but still wining that we should do this or that.
It still makes me so angry thinking about how your close ones can respond like you are stupid. Let me tell you, we are not stupid, but far from stupid! We have good skills and potential and still we got in this situation. People that are stuck in the system of their country can say: this will never happen to me, but I can assure you, it CAN. I am not saying it will, but it can certainly happen to everyone. Because we played by the rules, we tried every advice given, and still we got homeless!
I can also tell you that you get very creative to survive in a situation without any income. Groups on facebook where people offer free food, or where they trade food can help a lot. And I found out there were also some places in town where they had trade closets full of food. You just go there, put stuff in it that you don’t use, and trade it for whatever you can use. This is a great concept, and helped us a lot in that period.
Going to the supermarkets and find the products that are on the date of that day, so you can take it home for free. Never before did I have the knowledge of these kind of options. Now it was my daily round through town. And whatever I couldn’t use I traded in those groups online. Doing so, we also got many messages from complete strangers that offered their help. More than once I had the luck that I got home with several grocery bags filled with food! This made sure I didn’t lose faith in people. Stealing was not an option, neither was robbing people. This was our way to manage surviving.
Those dark months I made a promise to myself, that when better days would come, and I was in the position to help others in need, I would. This is just a very short part of what’s left to tell that happened to us, but as our life is becoming better now, I wanted to share this here. Because you may be in a dark place now, and have the feeling this will never end, and you are all alone.. but you aren’t !
I want to be one of those people inspiring others in that place now, and share my story how we survived, and show how we are in a good place now.
I want to be the helping hand to the people that nobody sees, when I see the struggle in their eyes..
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All of my posts are posted when I find the strenght to write about that particular part of my life. Some events are extremely painfull to relive, and write down, therefore it will cost me a lot of energy, and tears to finish the post. Here you can find all of my posts that I posted under the #familyprotection ftag with my own personal story.
How to get back your inner strenght
Turning my experience of being homeless into something good
My posts will not apear in chronological order, so sometimes there may be a period of a few years in between this and the next or previous post. Don't be confused by that, this is to make sure I can cope with it. I found a way of coping with the pain and grieve in the last 1,5 year or so. Before this period I was lost, and could not see any light at the end of the tunnel.
This is not so hard to understand, if you know what happened to us in a period of only a few years. Many people will not even experience this kind of horror in their whole lives. (Luckily!) I plan on getting as much awareness as possible by sharing my story, and hope to help others open their eyes before things get out of hand. So your support is much appreciated!
Resteeming too, of course.
Thank you for your support!
AnoukNox