Five Boys and a Deficit

Aisyah has five boys. They are aged eleven, nine, seven, five, and fifteen months.

Until recently, she was not raising them alone.

The DV incident happened without warning. Her husband was taken by police. An AVO is now in place. He is in jail. And Aisyah is responsible for everything.

She was working before it happened. She is not working now. Five young boys, the youngest still an infant, means that leaving the house for regular employment is not straightforward. She is doing what she can. But what she can do and what the bills require do not match.

Her Centrelink income is $5,000 a month. Her expenses are $5,795 a month. The deficit is $795 every month, without emergencies, without school excursions, without anything unexpected.

She recently left temporary accommodation and moved into a rental property of her own. She arrived with almost no furniture. When she came to the NZF office, caseworkers noted she needed both food support and essential household items for her boys.

That same day, the team sent her a $300 food voucher and a $200 voucher for a homewares store. These were not large amounts. But they were immediate. She did not have to explain herself again, wait through another process, or prove her situation one more time to a system that was not built for her circumstances.

She told the caseworker her boys need more storage space as they grow. She is thinking about the future, even in the middle of a crisis. She wants to settle. She wants to work again. She knows what the path forward looks like. She just needs someone to help her stay on it.

The caseworker's recommendation is $500 a month in cost-of-living support for three months, alongside additional vouchers for food and household needs. This is the bridge between where she is now and where she needs to be.

There is no child support coming. Not now. Possibly not for a long time.

The five boys do not know the full details of what their mother is carrying. They just know she is there.

Your Zakat, Asiyah's Right.