Urgent: Help a Young Woman, Her Dog & Her Mom Survive

My name is Delphine Mara. I’m organizing this campaign to raise emergency funds for my friend S and her dog B.

Even though S, an unhoused, disabled survivor of child abuse and sex trafficking as a young child and intimate partner violence as a young adult, has faced some of the most daunting life struggles of anyone I know, she is a fierce fighter with boundless love and compassion for fellow humans and animals. Despite a lifetime of adversity, she has persevered, overcome and held strong, no matter what.

Yet S is now being stalked by an abusive ex who has endangered her safety and caused her a great deal of harm. Although she’s in the process of filing a restraining order against him, he recently found her and threatened her with violence.

Now she has nowhere safe to go. Having recently lost work due to a hostile workplace, with little income from delivering meals, S needs to raise $2,000 for rent and a deposit on a hotel room right away, so that she can focus on finding employment and saving money for permanent housing without trying to survive on the streets while being stalked by her ex.

Please donate as generously as you can – and please share with fundraiser with family, friends, co-workers and community members!

B, a loving service dog she rescued from abuse and neglect a few years ago, has been a lifesaver for her, always alert and ready to support her the moment she is about to have a seizure. Just as she saved his life, he in turn has saved her life time and again. Despite long stretches of homelessness, abusive relationships and health challenges amidst ongoing struggles to find safe permanent housing on poverty wages, together, S and her dog are unstoppable and inseparable.

Recently, B, now a senior dog, developed painful kidney stones and a bladder infection and stopped eating or drinking, requiring an expensive trip to an animal hospital. With community support, he was able to receive emergency veterinary care, antibiotics and pain relievers, but $200 more is still needed to offset those unexpected costs.

S’s birth mother, who is also disabled and is showing early signs of dementia, is also in urgent need of financial assistance and in-kind material aid. S refuses to allow her mother to return to the streets, so S has spent all her remaining savings paying for food, hygiene supplies, and other essentials for her mother. Now her savings is gone, and to recoup these expenses and continue providing for her mother, S needs to raise an additional $1,000.

Meanwhile, S is still making payments on a used car whose transmission is on the way out. She needs $250 per month for these payments.

S is asking each and every community member to do their part to help her, her service dog and her mother survive and get back on their feet. If you can donate $100, $50, or $15, please give what you can. Even if you can’t afford to contribute financially, please share this fundraiser on social media and via email and text with everyone you know.

Let’s come together as a supportive community and show S and B the love and care they need and deserve.

If she can reach her goal in this campaign by this fall, S hopes to:

Once she gets back on her feet, S will be able to return to her radiant, loving and heroic way of life, always giving her all to the community. She plans go back to school and get her cosmetology license and ultimately to become a community advocate for sexual assault and sex trafficking survivors.

Please dig deep, give generously and share, repost and boost this fundraiser!

Sincerely,

Delphine Mara

Cover photo by Nando Martinez for Getty Images.

Story photo by rhinoWErx.

Image descriptions: Cover photo: A relaxed woman with long hair and a dog companion, both in silhouette, enjoy a summer sunset or sunrise over the sea sitting on the sand at a beach. Story photo: A seated chestnut male Pit Bull with triangular ears, amber eyes, a square head, grey fur around his whiskers, a black snout, a white patch on his belly and white paws, smiles and faces the camera. He is seated on green grass.