Good deed helps evicted Uzbek grandmother and boy fly home
A frightening future for an elderly woman and her grandson, who were left homeless and broke without their sole breadwinner, took a turn for the better thanks to a kind-hearted passer-by.
Thrown out of their flat after the 71-year-old grandmother’s daughter was jailed over a bounced cheque, the woman and grandson, 9, were crying by the roadside after their car broke down on their way to a police station, where they were going to seek help.
The Uzbek woman Iodmela and boy Ioe had accumulated visa fines of Dh100,000 and, with nowhere else to go, were going to hand themselves in when a Syrian woman stopped to offer help.
Zaina Ahmed, 33, saw them on the street in Ras Al Khor with their luggage.
“They were stranded on the street after the car stopped,” said Mrs Ahmed, a mother of one. “An employee at a real estate company was taking them to a police station after they were evicted from their home due to delayed payments.
“The nine-year-old boy and his grandmother were crying on the street. I stopped my car and asked what was their problem. The real estate employee told me they had been evicted from their apartment.”
Mrs Ahmed, who is a PhD law student, said she felt compelled to help out.
“My conscience doesn’t allow me to see people in need without helping them,” she said. “There is no more noble work than reaching down and lifting people up.”
So Mrs Ahmed co-ordinated with police and found the woman and boy a hotel room.
“The grandmother told me that they had been through financial problems that landed them in the street. I decided to help them and rented accommodation for them at the Ibis hotel in Al Barsha,” she said.
“They were in a distressed situation as they looked very tired and extremely exhausted. The next day, I contacted the child protection centre and they co-ordinated with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.”
With the help of Mrs Ahmed and authorities they had the fines waived, got mother Mertes, 38, released from jail, and sent them all on a flight to their homeland.
“Her son and mother were on her residency visa and the boy’s father had walked out on his family and is living in Canada. The grandmother’s residency visa had been expired for four years and the boy’s for eight years and they had accumulated fines of Dh100,000.”
Mrs Ahmed said that the authorities in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ajman helped the family to return home.
“What I did is a humanitarian duty,” she said.
Dubai Police thought so too, and honoured the Syrian woman for her good deed.
There is no more noble work than reaching down and lifting people up ZAINA AHMED PhD law student