It is unfortunate that some reporters are only concerned with sensational news. They cannot be bothered with verifying facts or checking information. All they want is to see their story with their name published. Recently Al-Madinah Arabic daily published the story of Umm Ghassan and her five children under the headline "A woman and her five children live on the street." The woman reporter who wrote the story said the woman had told an officer who questioned her that she had no home. When the officer advised her to contact one of the many charity organizations, she said she had written to the Women’s Philanthropic Society in Madinah as well as to the governorate explaining her case but to no avail.
If the reporter were really keen to produce a fair and comprehensive story she would have interviewed the society officials asking why the woman’s problem had not been solved. As a member of that society, I inquired and was told that the society, as well as other organizations, had provided both financial and material assistance to the woman.
Umm Ghassan was married to a soldier who worked as a security guard with the society until he retired. They have since divorced and for a whole month after the divorce, the society sheltered the woman and her children, providing the family with a three-room house. They stayed in the house for six months before being evicted for the troubles they had caused. The society then found them another apartment in addition to supplying electrical house appliances and SR250 in cash every month. The women sold the appliances and other things and left the house to move into a furnished apartment provided by someone else. When the society’s social worker asked her to complete the necessary papers allowing her to be listed as a regular recipient, she failed to do so and disappeared. One woman later brought Umm Ghassan’s papers to the society, saying the woman was in urgent need of shelter. The society then provided her with a two-room apartment but she refused the offer, saying the house was too small for her and her family. The society paid her SR600 from zakah money.
Her father owns two houses with one being a two-story building where Umm Ghassan’s mother lives and another occupied by the father’s second wife. The father, a junk dealer, lives alone in a house inside a large enclosed area near the airport. When he asked his daughter to come and live with him, she refused saying it was too far away. Wouldn’t it be better for the woman to live in a decent place of her own even if it was far away instead of squatting and being chased by the police?
A letter from the director of the Social Services Charity in Madinah stated that they had allocated some monthly assistance to the woman. Another letter from the governorate said the woman’s children study in public schools and that the woman herself had been provided with a house and SR400 in monthly assistance but she had left the house because of family problems.
Following the publication of the report, the society called the oldest daughter who is 19 and offered her a job but she rejected the offer. The society told her they would provide the family with a house and SR500 monthly. A date was fixed for them to come to the society but they failed to show up. Having learned all this, who could then blame the society for not helping the woman and her family? When I asked about how to contact the woman I was told to call her mobile phone number. Imagine a woman sleeping with her children on the street who has a mobile! I called her and she told me she was living with her sister. When I asked if it would not have been better to live in a house, even a small one, instead of on the street, she said she was waiting for help from Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd which she had been promised. She added that she did not want the society apartment.
People who want to lead a decent life will stay in a cottage, no matter how small, if they have nothing better. I know, and many others do as well, of large families with 10 members or more who live in a two-room house. There are others who can barely afford a meal but are content with their living. Thieves have long used cellular phones to facilitate their work. Now we have people begging on a mobile. Who knows what is next? Begging on the Internet?