RIYADH, 12 July 2005 — The Sri Lankan maid who died in a fire rescuing the child in her charge last week in Jeddah came to the Kingdom just three months after her marriage. She promised her relatives that she would find the funds to build her dream house back home.
Asiyath Umma, 27, in the Kingdom for 18 months, sacrificed her life to rescue her employer’s eight-year-old boy. She died of smoke inhalation; the child was subsequently admitted to the hospital for treatment.
“My niece, who was the only daughter in the family, told her mother and husband that she opted to work abroad since her goal was to build a house of her own,” her uncle, Aboobucker Mohammed Ismail told Arab News.
Ismail, a driver working for a Saudi family, said he was shocked to get the death news of his niece from the Sri Lanka Consulate in Jeddah. “To fulfill her dream, the maid had kept her 11 months’ salaries as savings with her sponsor,” he added.
Ismail said the deceased’s relatives in Pulmoddai in eastern Sri Lanka had contacted the Foreign Ministry in Colombo to bring Asiyath’s body home. “It took hours for me to convince them to bury her in the Kingdom,” he noted.
Hudaiban Aali Ali Al Umry, the maid’s sponsor, promised to pay a generous compensation and her savings to the relatives in appreciation of her devotion to his family. Umry, who visited the Sri Lankan Consulate recalled that the victim was like a member of his household. “She was loving and caring,” Umry said.
Third Secretary- Labor, Saratchandra Pathiratne at the Lankan Consulate said the mission had clearance from Asiyath’s next-of-kin to bury the body in the Kingdom. Accordingly, he added that funeral arrangements were under way.
Two years ago, Sri Lankan housemaid Vaidraliyage S. Dissanayake Jayakody, 28, injured in a bomb blast in Riyadh at the Mohaya Compound risked her life to save the children of the house in the absence of their parents.
She was praised by her sponsor for rescuing his children from the blaze even after she had sustained injuries. The Sri Lankan community in the capital presented a cash award to the maid for her act of bravery.
