Money just 'goes, goes, goes' for Muslim family

Mother of six will watch others celebrate

Sarah will spend the holiday season watching others celebrate.
As a Muslim, the 33-year-old mother of six doesn't observe Christmas. But putting enough food on the table and buying the children new clothes for an Islamic festival will be as close as the family can get to celebrating. Sarah is among thousands of people who are to receive $125 cheques from The Gazette Christmas Fund this year.
The money helps make the holiday season a bit more cheerful for needy families and individuals.
She arrived in Canada as a refugee from Djibouti in 1997. Her father sent her, the only child, to escape hopelessness in the east African nation.
"There was war in my country and there were no schools, no work," she said.
Sarah lived in Montreal with friends and earned a living packaging products at a cookie plant. A year after she arrived, Sarah got married and quit work before she had her first child.
Life is much better here, she says. And while there is much more hope here than in her native land, like many others, getting by still isn't easy.

The landlord causes problems, Sarah said, and the apartment is in constant need of repairs.
"I'm afraid the bathroom door might fall on one of the kids," she said. "They just say they don't have the budget for repairs." Sarah's husband is an economics student at UQàM. With six young mouths to feed - ranging in age from 4 months to 10 years - and no one working, money just seems to head in one direction.
"It just goes, goes, goes," she said.
Instead of celebrating the birth of Jesus, the family will be commemorating what Muslims believe was Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael at God's command.
During Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), which falls in the second week of December this year, those who have the means to sacrifice an animal do so, as Abraham did after God replaced Ishmael with a ram. It is customary to wear new or good clothes during the festival - a challenge for Sarah.

"Clothes are expensive these days," she says.
Sarah and her husband already bought presents for the children in the last Islamic festival held after the holy month of Ramadan, in early October.
So the family will be using the money from The Gazette Christmas Fund for the most basic of necessities: food.
But even with all the worries here at home, Sarah hasn't forgotten her parents back in Djibouti. They are sick, she says, and live a tough life. Once every three or six months, she tries to save some money and sends it back to lend them a hand.

The Gazette

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