When Violence Turns Home Into A Threat

Mariam stared at the empty fridge, trying to decide whether to use the last few dollars on bread or transport, for her children to get to school.

She is a single mother with three kids, all under ten, carrying the weight of what they escaped and the cost of what they are trying to build. There was a time when she thought staying would be easier, that keeping the peace for the children was worth swallowing the insults, the shouting, the slammed doors. Then one night it went too far, and she realised that the house they lived in was no longer a home but a threat.

Leaving meant starting again from scratch, in a different suburb, with higher rent and no furniture except what friends and a local community centre could pull together. She picked up casual cleaning work at odd hours, but it was never enough. The kids would sometimes pretend they were not hungry because they could see her stress every time she opened her wallet. Excursions, new shoes, new clothes started to feel like luxuries.

Bills piled up on the table, electricity, rent arrears, school fees, each envelope another reminder that survival in Australia is expensive when you are doing it alone. Mariam wanted more than survival. She wanted her children to feel safe, to sleep without flinching when a car door slammed outside, to invite friends over without worrying about how bare their pantry looked. She wanted them to believe that leaving violence was not a punishment but the beginning of a better life.

When she reached out to the National Zakat Foundation, Mariam did so with a mixture of hope and embarrassment. She kept asking herself, how did I end up here, in a country with so much opportunity, unable to cover the basics for my kids. The truth is that many families in our suburbs sit on this same edge, one pay cut, one crisis, one broken relationship away from not being able to cope. People who look just like us, pray beside us, stand next to us in the school pick up line.

Your Zakat, Their Right.

Through local Zakat, Mariam received support with daily living costs and essential bills. That support meant food in the cupboard, lights that stayed on, rent that was not constantly overdue. It meant the children could feel a little more secure while their mother focused on healing and rebuilding. It reminded her that leaving violence did not mean leaving her community, that Zakat in Australia is there as a safety blanket for families like hers.

This is Zakat in Australia, quietly holding up households that might otherwise fall apart.