When the Money Ran Out

Dina spent decades building a quiet life. She raised her children, worked steadily, and eventually put her savings into something she believed was safe: renovating her home.

She paid a builder close to $70,000. He completed barely any of the work, then disappeared. His number is disconnected. Her messages go unanswered. The house remains unfinished. Dina cannot live in it.

She has been staying with her son in his rental home. He tries to help. He does not work either.

Then, in early 2024, a car accident upended what remained of her stability. She was injured. A CTP claim was opened and she began receiving fortnightly payments that covered her most basic costs. She was managing, barely, until those payments were abruptly cut off in early 2026.

After that, the borrowing began.

She asked her parents for help. She asked her brother-in-law, a widower raising two daughters of his own, for a loan. He gave her $3,750 to cover council rates and electricity. He now needs it back. She also owes her brother a significant sum, with $400 a week expected in repayments she cannot make.

"I have been borrowing money off my friends and family to survive," she wrote to NZF. "I was too embarrassed to reach out earlier. I am begging people for money to survive, which I have never been through before in my life."

She said she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Dina is not young. She is not newly arrived. She has paid taxes, raised children, and buried her savings in good faith in a project that was supposed to secure her future. She did everything right. She still ended up with nothing.

When she applied to NZF, caseworkers provided an immediate $200 food voucher while her full assessment was processed. This was the first time in months she had bought groceries without asking someone else to cover it.

It is not a solution. But it is a sign that someone is listening.

Her case is ongoing. The immediate need is food, rent, and the most pressing debts. The underlying loss, the home she saved for and lost to fraud, will take far longer to resolve. But she is being seen now. And she is not alone.

Your Zakat, Dina's Right