My friend was beaten for being bi. He needs help!

Note: The following is an archived version of the GoFundMe campaign text for my friend Jumber.

This young man is my friend from Georgia (the country, not the US state), one of the kindest and most beautiful souls that I know. He came to my country of the Netherlands as a refugee because he is bisexual, which is not accepted in Georgia. The authorities here sent him back because, on paper, it is safe there. He lost everything he had trying to go to a place where he hoped to be accepted. Sent back, he had to survive on the streets with little or no food, no medical care. All he could do was collect bottles in the streets for a little bit of cash. His mother, who tried to help him, died not long ago. (I cannot say this for certain, but personally I believe she was killed by his father precisely because she was trying to help her son).

I have used the little financial means that I have in order to get him a roof over his head, and he had recovered enough to get a job. It didn't pay well, but he worked hard (and kept collecting the bottles) so that he could try to build something of a life again. Last week, some people who had known him from before he fled spotted him while he was working. Two days later, they came back with a group and beat him. He is now in the hospital with a head wound and a broken rib and mounting medical bills. This immediately cost him his job and the small amount of money that he had saved up.

These medical costs are low by our standards (roughly $500 per week in the hospital), but for him that is a fortune. Although Georgia does have universal health care, he is terrified of going to the proper authorities (as they too have demonstrated a hatred for LGBT people and an utter lack of willingness to help). I have exhausted my own means to get him this far, but he desperately needs more help. He is very much afraid of his attackers or anybody finding out, which is why I've blurred his face. He no longer believes there are good people out there who will treat him like a worthwhile human being, thinking that I am perhaps the only one. I know there are and I want to prove him wrong in this.

When I told him about writing on GoFundMe, he thought that maybe some people would be willing to chip in €2 or €1 to help us and said to write "nobody knows whether tomorrow they will be rich or healthy". This is a kind, gentle and damaged soul who desperately needs some help from people who feel he is a valuable human being who has the right to live and be safe. Any donation, no matter how small, will mean the world to him and to me, knowing that there is somebody who cares.

Any and all of the funding for this campaign will go directly to covering the medical bills for his recovery and any surplus goes towards helping my friend build a life again.

If you want to learn more about my friend's story, please read my experiences with how I met him.

Update: with the generous donations from kind people from all around the world, the campaign goal was reached and my friend has recovered enough to leave the hospital. The remaining funds have helped him make rent while searching for a new job.