Please help my family

Hi. My name is Willem. I am doing this with a very heavy heart, but I am doing this for my family. I am married, we have a little girl of 7 and two adopted boys of 12 and 13, that I accept as my own. My mom and dad passed away and left me a small inheritance, which I used to become a small time entrepreneur. I buy broken cars, fix them up and sell them for a profit... or that is what I used to do before all this happened to us. My goal is to buy my family our own house to live in.

Just over two months ago my friend asked me if I don't want to invest money with someone he knew and did business with. He knew I was saving every cent of money to buy a house for very long time, but we were struggling to make ends meet and save enough for the house at the same time. He promised that this will definitely put me in the position to buy the house we wanted so bad. I was skeptical at first knowing that I can not afford to loose the little money I inherited from my parents and the money that I saved from the small business I started for our house. After much consideration, my friend convinced me to give him all my savings. He promised me great returns in only one month and promised me that there is no risk involved and this will give me enough money to buy the house. I took all my money, my inheritance, my savings, and the money I had from selling the motorhome we lived in. I paid all the money into the account my friend provided to me.

When the month passed and I enquired about my money and the profits, I was informed that all my money got lost. They invested my money with fraudsters and they got scammed. I asked my friend how he could make me invest my money with someone like this. He said he knew the guy for many years and didn't expect this to happen. I went to a lawyer and they informed me that this people are part of a syndicate that operates for many years already. Long story short, I never got one cent of my money back. R620 000 gone. All my inheritance and hard earned money all gone.

We are in the process of losing everything. I already had to sell our car. We received notice to move out of the property we are currently renting due to non payment and affordability. Our children's school fees can't be paid. We are struggling to get enough money together to buy food. Worst part of this is that I can not continue with my entrepreneur business as I do not have any funds available to buy vehicles to fix. This is a life changing experience for us. I can't let my family live on street and we can't afford to buy the house we saved for anymore. I have no relatives to help me, and I have a family to provide for. Please help us.