Housing for our Rika-bee

Here's the short version: our friend Rika (Elisabeth on her wallet name) has survived a shitload of misery, abuse and painful illness, and we're here to get her enough to be safe for the next sixth months in Ottawa, long enough to a. get her finalized on her Canadian citizenship, and b. finished getting the diagnoses and treatment plans she needs for her disabilities and illnesses (and yes, those are multiples). Rika is physically unable to work, and it takes Some Time and Process to actually succeed at seeking disability support in Ontario, as it does everywhere. This fundraiser is to get her the space to get through that process safely and without having to suffer further harm.

The funds will go directly to housing (which she's secured as a roommate for 900$/month), food and meds for herself and her cat Thanatos for six months. Six months is enough time to get her citizenship finalized, to finish the referrals and medicine trials for rheumatology, psychology and neurology that she very, very much needs, and to keep her safe and secure enough to take the next steps towards long-term stability and wellness. Once citizenship and diagnoses are sorted a lot more avenues open up safely - but both of those take time.

That's the short version.

The long version goes something like this:

I (Feather, or M in general) am running this GoFundMe for my friend.

I have known Rika for most of her life, meeting her through writing communities when I was in my very early twenties and she was around 13. I have somewhat unhappily watched Rika survive an abusive and unsafe childhood home + high risk illnesses, because I was in BC and she was in Georgia and my power to do anything about it was limited. In her early adulthood she was unfortunately targeted by a very predatory person in ways that ended up in what would eventually be a marriage. It worked the way these things often worked, and Rika spent a long time and a lot of effort trying to hide how bad things were from myself and others who cared for her, because abuse convinces you that you have to do that.

During this time, the abusive partner actively prevented Rika from seeking any treatment or relief for her severe chronic pain and messed up joints, or her migraines, or anything else, on top of the other physical, emotional and financial abuse suffered. On top of that, they were living on Prince Edward Island which has a healthcare system so broken and unsupported that it makes the rest of the provinces' overtaxed healthcare systems look like smooth sailing. (I'm not saying that the rest of us have functional healthcare systems - we don't. I'm saying PEI's is that much worse.)

Because Rika is an amazingly tough and determined person, despite her pain and illness she spent several years working in multiple daycares in PEI; that meant that when some other things came together at the right time, I and other people who love her were able to help and support her to get the hell out of that marriage, relationship and house, and into somewhere fundamentally safe on PEI.

Unfortunately forcing yourself to work when you're getting sicker and sicker takes an actual toll of damage on the body, and by late last year we were unbelievably worried that she was just going to keel over and go into cardiac arrest, or otherwise injure herself without support on the Island. Through massive group efforts that I will be forever grateful for, we were able to move her to just outside of Ottawa to a safe place.

At that point all of the punishment she'd taken in her life kind of caught up with her for a bit, as we expected. The place to live we had for her was not indefinite - there was no hard-fast eviction, but we knew there were about six months or so there, which gave us breathing room to figure out the next part.

We are building on this, step by step. We have managed to get her to a rheumatologist in Ottawa to be diagnosed with a type of arthritis and to get the appropriate treatment medications, which seem to be having some beneficial effects (there are even days she wakes up without knees so swollen she can't walk!) and will hopefully continue. We also determined that it would be a significant, major advantage for her to actually be in Ottawa, where the services she needed were, instead of a couple hours outside of it.

Our goal is another six months of security. We, a group of a dozen of us or so, are already involved in supporting and figuring things out, and there are definitely options after this next six months, but we need your help to cover them.

Our Rika is one of the most remarkable people I know. She's funny, smart, kind, incisive, and creative. She is a prolific member of Supernatural fandom and a resin and fibre artist; she is an original novelist with work that looks unflinchingly at the darker sides of human existence.

She was dealt a shitty, shitty hand by the universe for more than 25 years and I would be immensely grateful for any help anyone can give, either in a few dollars or a signal boost, in making sure that doesn't continue, and that she gets a chance to have a life worth living for the rest of her life.

Thank you, if you can.

Feather

Here's a Rika, with one of our friend's cats:

And here's Thanatos, her demon who has stuck with her through all of this shit: