Help KaramKaram (GoFundMe) - GREAT NEWS INSIDE 08/16/2016

I thought this probably deserved its own thread
https://www.gofundme.com/antoinesfamily
https://www.gofundme.com/antoinesfamily
https://www.gofundme.com/antoinesfamily

Excerpt from Blake:
Some of you know Antoine as one of the moderators of the Christian Metal Realm forum, and some of you may not know him at all, but none of that should matter right now. What matters today is that a man and his family are struggling and we have an opportunity to help them. I was not asked by him to start this campaign, but after familiarizing myself with the situation in Venezuela I felt compelled to do something. This is an opportunity to help your fellow man.

Antoine lives in Caracas, Venezuela with his wife and 4 year old son. In recent times, (partly due to the decline in oil prices) Venezuela’s economy has been spiraling out of control due to the country’s reliance on oil for 95% of their exports. This has transformed Venezuela into a country where one fights to live on a day to day basis.

While many items are expensive, others are simply extremely difficult to obtain such as soap, medicine and other essentials. The family has discussed the prospects of moving out of the country but has been unable due to the expenses involved in traveling, VISAS, employment opportunities, a place to live, etc. These are all important things to consider.

It is not very economically feasible to ship essential items into Venezuela as shipping rates are extremely high and packages may be stolen anyway. That is why I am calling for us to unite and help Antoine move his family out of Venezuela and into a safe, stable country. I think we can all agree that no one should have to raise a family in these kind of conditions.
I am unsure on the exact cost of moving but I do know the cost of 3 plane tickets alone can be from $3,000 to $6,000, so rather on focusing on the goal amount, instead give what you feel led to give. Anything will be helpful

Thanks for posting the topic. I hope everyone can come together and help him out

Its been about 8 hours and we already have raised $46. Keep it coming everyone!

Also if anyone wants to repost this on other forums you are more than welcome. I only have an account here and on Thomas' forum

We are at $61, a great start, but still a ways to go

Hardcore Christian wrote:While many items are expensive, others are simply extremely difficult to obtain such as soap, medicine and other essentials. The family has discussed the prospects of moving out of the country but has been unable due to the expenses involved in traveling, VISAS, employment opportunities, a place to live, etc. These are all important things to consider.

It is not very economically feasible to ship essential items into Venezuela as shipping rates are extremely high and packages may be stolen anyway. That is why I am calling for us to unite and help Antoine move his family out of Venezuela and into a safe, stable country. I think we can all agree that no one should have to raise a family in these kind of conditions.
I am unsure on the exact cost of moving but I do know the cost of 3 plane tickets alone can be from $3,000 to $6,000, so rather on focusing on the goal amount, instead give what you feel led to give. Anything will be helpful

Let's discuss what it would take for them to get VISA. Is it realistically possible? Is it just a matter of money or are there other considerations.

Let's discuss what it would take for them to get VISA. Is it realistically possible? Is it just a matter of money or are there other considerations.

It most likely would be impossible to get them to the states but it is very feasible and logical to think they could possibly make it into another country like Columbia, Peru or even Mexico...

Getting a US VISA (tourist) will not be expensive, in fact is almost free (the price to be paid is ridiculously cheap) after entering the US I could ask for asylum as others Venezuelans are doing, I know some people that have gone this route, of course, not always work, and not always the asylum is given making the people that asked for it to go to their country of residence, and I know that in the last times the US Has become more and more strict on this topic.

The other letdown to go to an English speaking country, is that my wife does not speak English not she understand it, I am in the process of teaching her what I know.

The options we are considering now are Colombia, that can be reached by plane to their capital city Bogota and without the need to cross the boarder by bus which is closed by my government. And the other options we are considering are Chile, Dominican Republic and Mexico, Chile and DR are the easiest to get a resident visa, Chile also has one of the best exonomies of the region not so much DR, and Mexico a Mexican friend of mine who has been in contact with me lately has offered me one of his house for a monthly fee, he also offered me a job in one of the shoes stores he has in the city. The cons of going there regarding Visas are that I would need a lawyer to help in the process and my friend said those are costly and the waiting times are longer.

I keep on praying and I thank you all for your prayers and donations that have clearly blessed us in ways you don't imagine. Being honest, my wife, son and I are really grateful, we thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Darth Vader wrote:Getting a US VISA (tourist) will not be expensive, in fact is almost free (the price to be paid is ridiculously cheap) after entering the US I could ask for asylum as others Venezuelans are doing, I know some people that have gone this route, of course, not always work, and not always the asylum is given making the people that asked for it to go to their country of residence, and I know that in the last times the US Has become more and more strict on this topic.

The other letdown to go to an English speaking country, is that my wife does not speak English not she understand it, I am in the process of teaching her what I know.

The options we are considering now are Colombia, that can be reached by plane to their capital city Bogota and without the need to cross the boarder by bus which is closed by my government. And the other options we are considering are Chile, Dominican Republic and Mexico, Chile and DR are the easiest to get a resident visa, Chile also has one of the best exonomies of the region not so much DR, and Mexico a Mexican friend of mine who has been in contact with me lately has offered me one of his house for a monthly fee, he also offered me a job in one of the shoes stores he has in the city. The cons of going there regarding Visas are that I would need a lawyer to help in the process and my friend said those are costly and the waiting times are longer.

I keep on praying and I thank you all for your prayers and donations that have clearly blessed us in ways you don't imagine. Being honest, my wife, son and I are really grateful, we thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Dominican Republic? If my move works out, we could be neighbors!

That would be so neat Adam.

Do you know an estimate on how much it costs to move to Mexico or to another South American Country?

I checked at www.cheaptickets.com and these are the prices, The prices below are for travels in October, I put that day as we would need to do some paperwork before departure to legalize our academic titles, of course it could be sooner or later than that.

Mexico $583 each adult and $473 child
Bogota $315 each adult and $288 child
Chile $484 each adult and $421 child
Dominican Republic $395 each adult and $327 child
Quito $299 each adult and $254 child
Lima $387 each adult and $340 child
Buenos Aires $576 each adult and $501 child

Some of these tickets can also be obtained in local currency which sometimes are cheaper

So it looks like Buenos Aires is the most expensive by a few dollars. I will adjust the campaign to more accurately reflect what is needed. I set it to 10k originally because I had no clue on the combination of ticket prices, cost of moving belongings, etc.

Lowered it to $2500. Does that seem like a realistic amount? Is that enough for the visas as well?

Darth Vader wrote:Getting a US VISA (tourist) will not be expensive, in fact is almost free (the price to be paid is ridiculously cheap) after entering the US I could ask for asylum as others Venezuelans are doing, I know some people that have gone this route, of course, not always work, and not always the asylum is given making the people that asked for it to go to their country of residence, and I know that in the last times the US Has become more and more strict on this topic.

The other letdown to go to an English speaking country, is that my wife does not speak English not she understand it, I am in the process of teaching her what I know.

The options we are considering now are Colombia, that can be reached by plane to their capital city Bogota and without the need to cross the boarder by bus which is closed by my government. And the other options we are considering are Chile, Dominican Republic and Mexico, Chile and DR are the easiest to get a resident visa, Chile also has one of the best exonomies of the region not so much DR, and Mexico a Mexican friend of mine who has been in contact with me lately has offered me one of his house for a monthly fee, he also offered me a job in one of the shoes stores he has in the city. The cons of going there regarding Visas are that I would need a lawyer to help in the process and my friend said those are costly and the waiting times are longer.

I keep on praying and I thank you all for your prayers and donations that have clearly blessed us in ways you don't imagine. Being honest, my wife, son and I are really grateful, we thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Seems like a US VISA would be too much of a gamble with money you don't have. Chile is on my list of places to flee to if things ever were to get really bad in the US. When I was in the DR 15 years ago, I met a Venezuelan and some Colombians living there working. I made me wonder about the economies of those countries. Chile would be good, plus they play metal there. The DR could work out well too. You can work there for a while and then maybe more to PR and then go to the US. Besides Mexico, do you know anyone else in other countries?

Yes, We have friends in: Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, USA, Denmark, Spain, and Ecuador. you guys and my friend from Mexico are the ones voluntarily helping us and again we thank you a lot for that.

Darth Vader wrote:Yes, We have friends in: Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, USA, Denmark, Spain, and Ecuador. you guys and my friend from Mexico are the ones voluntarily helping us and again we thank you a lot for that.

So, what do you think is the best plan or option? What would you prefer to do? I think you should work out as many details (where, when, how much needed, and how long to be ready) as possible and let us know. That, I believe details like that would help create more support for you.

I mean its your decision but honestly the DR sounds like the best option for many reasons, just IMO

D@v!d planning is also limited to the support we can get, I mean, I would want to work on the details you mentioned, first WHERE: right now our first option is Mexico for the support my friend in the city can give us. But WHEN? We don't know that yet, as I said above it depends if we can get money to pay the rent and deposit, HOW MUCH? We are doing the maths now. As to what we preferred to do, we just want to leave, I mean righ now wherever we go we KNOW we will be better than where we are now.

Hardcore DR sounds fantastic, but we are also researching schools chances for our son and what we have read about the education there is not as good as we would want. Again, we will be better anywhere else but we also want what's best for our son. I hope what I am
Saying makes sense and not coming as arrogant or selfish or something else.

Up to $116. If you all havent already you should share the link on social media

Darth Vader wrote:I hope what I am
Saying makes sense and not coming as arrogant or selfish or something else.

Its not! Its good to hear what your taking into consideration though

Got to $116 over the weekend. If anyone is up to getting a care package together Karam did say that there were certain items that are scarce and hard to obtain at the moment in his country. I looked into DHL rates for a 10lb box and it was $360 but I'm sure smaller packaged would be less outrageous.

When I talked to DHL they told me you are allowed to send up to 8 items in the medicine category, any more than 8 and you have to get some sort of special approval as a charity or something.

Also they mentioned that in order for him to RECEIVE medicine in the mail on his end he will need to get approval from his local ministry of health. We were thinking about getting some of the really small trial soap bars as those would be lightweight and take up less space. With international shipping weight and mass go LOOONG way.

Darth, do you have any experience with receiving meds and going through the ministry of health?

No experience at all regarding that.
But as I mentioned, a care package can be send through the freight forwarding in Miami and it would cost a 1/3 of what DHL quoted you

I had a hard time figuring out their site, and how to use it. I contacted them via their contact form over a week ago and still haven't heard back

This morning we are up to $196. Keep it coming

Bump! Let's get to $250.00, the 10% mark!