Moving House In Her Seventies, Alone

Aisha stood in the doorway of her new housing property in Adelaide, looking at the empty rooms and wondering how she would even move a single box without collapsing from exhaustion.

Aisha is an elderly mother of three adult children; two no longer speak to her, and the other loves her but simply cannot afford to help. She survives on Centrelink, and has carried years of emotional strain, anxiety and depression largely on her own.​

When public housing finally offered her a more affordable home, it should have been a moment of relief. Instead, she was hit with a new crisis. There was no one to help her move her belongings, and no savings left after rent, groceries, utilities and paying off debts from a car that had already been written off. Even the caseworker who spoke to her saw it clearly, an older woman, tired, vulnerable, with barely any money in her account and no solid support network.​

Aisha reached out to National Zakat Foundation in desperation, for a removalist so she could safely move into the home that would finally ease her monthly rent burden. After reviewing her financial assessment, NZF recognised that she was in the Needy category of Zakat, her income simply did not meet her basic needs.​

Through local Zakat, NZF approved an emergency payment to cover a removalist service so Aisha could move into her new home without risking injury or going further into debt. That one act of local Zakat meant she could settle somewhere safer and cheaper, instead of staying trapped in a place she could not afford.​

Aisha’s story shows that those in need here look just like your own mother or grandmother, trying to move house with no one to help lift the boxes. Local Zakat became the safety blanket between her and another spiral into hardship, and it helped build a stronger, more compassionate community in the very streets we share.​

Your Zakat. Aisha's Right.