The Saleh family, members of our Al Siraat community, were featured in an article published on the front page of this week’s "Whittlesea Leader":
Despair turns to hope
by Margot Taylor
A Wollert family has thanked the Whittlesea community for its generosity after it rallied to rasie $20,000 just days after a house fire destroyed all their possessions. The Saleh family was left devastated after a fire, believed to have been caused by an overheated powerboard, ripped through their rental home on April 24.
Within days, a gofundme page had been started by members of the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø community, and as of Friday morning $21,520 of a $40,000 target to get the Salehs back on their feed, had been raised. Jedda-Christine Saleh said she and her husband Dilla had been humbled by the response from friends and strangers. "We have had a lot of people step up and help us financially, which has been amazing," Mrs Saleh said.
The family spent the past week in a Mill Park motel, which was paid for by the Whittlesea Council and the National Zakat Foundation. Ms Saleh said the generosity had enabled the family to begin processing what the fire had taken from them. The greatest loss was their pet cat Abigail, she said. "We only got her from the RSPCA in February," Mrs Saleh said. "Losing her has been the hardest part."
Mr Saleh said he and his wife were saving to buy a house and did not have contents insurance. The family’s focus is now on finding a new home. They appealed to anyone who knew of a rental property with three bedrooms in the Wollert/Epping area to contact them.
The couple’s daughters Laila, 8, and Aliyah, 7, who had been particularly traumatised by the blaze, would return to school this week to provide a sense of normality.
Mrs Saleh said she and Mr Saleh already volunteered in the community, but they had started planning on how they could thank people for their support. "This has just made us want to give back to this amazing community even more," she said.
UPDATE: The Saleh family has found accommodation in Epping and has moved into their new home earlier this week. Alhamdulillah!