80% Single Parent Families in Canada are Led by Women: This is Fahad's Story

Every child deserves the safety and comfort of home: a safe roof over their heads, a warm bed to sleep in, food on their table and the confidence and safety to navigate life.

However, for hundreds of Muslim children across Canada, reality is quite different. Simple basics like shelter, food and medicines are out of reach due to the death or abandonment of one or both parents.

‍Real Stories

Fahad was barely ten years old when his father walked out on his family, leaving behind a wife and three sons.

The brothers, shattered and confused by their father’s actions, were forced to grow up almost overnight. This was not the life they had imagined when their father moved them to Canada for a “better life”.

Their mother, Salma, did not speak English. She did not have a work permit and was deemed ineligible for childcare benefits. With the little government welfare they received, the boys saw their mother having to choose between food and rent.

Fahad’s older brother dropped out of school and got a work permit so he could pitch in for food. His dreams of studying seemed out of reach, but he could not bear to see his mother and little brothers go hungry.

Desperate and alone, Salma reached out to National Zakat Foundation for help.

With your support, we were able to help her family with essentials like clothes for school, food for her growing children, rent and utilities, so the family could focus on gaining independence.

Often, Fahad would help his mother with emails to us, thanking us for helping his family in difficult times and sometimes even sharing some of his dreams for the future.

“I wish I had a bike,” he once wrote in.

We may not be able to fulfil every dream for every child, but we can come together to provide them with the needs basic to their survival so they can look towards a hopeful future.

Your local Zakat can help children like Fahad today.