Stranded in New Zealand

Hello, my name is Prudence Pregnolato. I am 55 years old, single mom and nana and have no financial help from a partner.

I'm from South Africa and arrived in New Zealand 2 weeks before lockdown I had a job offer and all that was needed was to finalize the paper work and then lockdown happened and the company couldn't go through with it.

I needed the job to stay with my daughter and 2 granddaughters aged 3 1/2 half years old and 4 months old. I had never met my granddaughters and I hadn't seen my daughter in 5 years either and missed her terribly. So you can imagine the feeling of happiness, joy and fulfillment when I reunited with her the best feeling ever for a mom and nana.

I have been here since lockdown and my UIF, which is money the government has allocated to us for not being paid a salary during covid in South Africa has not paid out any money, the company I work for has not contacted us as to why we haven't received any money and I have used all my savings I had in nearly 4 months of being here.

I have no one in South Africa to ask for help and I'm desperate to take care of myself with personal essentials. Both my daughter and husband need to find work because their company is downscaling, this is heartbreaking for me because all I want to do is help them here.

I'm desperate for work and prepared to do anything as long as I can get an offer to apply for my work visa. I want to stay in NZ with my family and help them, but I can't financially. I have lost everything in South Africa because of all the fraud and corruption with our covid UIF money that I haven't received. I would be eternally grateful for any help I can get, whether it be financial or a job to help me help my family.

The main reason I started up this "give a little" campaign is to gain some financial support for me to be able to look after myself in a new country and also to help my family. I have a sister, aunt and cousins here. I don't have the means to buy essentials or even to contribute towards food or petrol. This is very hard for me because I'm a goal driven person and like to be in control and now I have no control on what's happening in my life.

I have faith that God will sort everything out in my life but at this stage am dependent on any help from you.

I truly don't want to go back to South Africa so I'm pleading to all for help in any form. I'm desperate to stay with my family.

Every little bit will help me be able to help my family and continue to enjoy the time with them.

Well, that's all from me right now. Thank you for reading this far and taking the time to consider my situation. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them. Until then God bless and much love to you. Pru