BookMark'D House

06/17/2023

Salaams Facebook Family,

I just found out that a friend I knew growing up lost her life to domestic violence. Her family started a campaign on LaunchGood to help build her legacy in the form of sadaqah jaariyah [continuous charity]. Sahra's life matters and it is my wish and that of her mother and family that Sahra is remembered and that her death is not another statistic. Sahra's legacy will not end in her being buried - rather she has been planted and her death will be the seed that blooms into the flower that will bear the fruit of help, to support others living or fleeing domestic violence. Her mother Fartumo Kusow 's wish is to help fund Sahra's Foundation to support young women seeking higher education and survivors of domestic violence.

This is how you can help.

Please support campaign (any dollar can make a difference)👇🏼

www.launchgood.com/IamSahraBulle

Second please share to your friends and family on your socials with the

Thank you so much!

-Shaimaa

Your generosity will help fund Sahra's Foundation to support young women seeking higher education and survivors of domestic violence.

04/13/2022

Help us win $20,000 to support Habo Kerima and get her back on her feet! LaunchGood is celebrating their millionth donor by giving away $20k. Every unique donation to our campaign this week is an entry to win. Please donate at least $1 everyday this week - it may be something small, but to us, it could make all the difference! And please spread the word! Link to donate: www.launchgood.com/habokerima 💯

04/10/2022

(21/21) Edmonton, Canada - This life, wallahi, is difficult. We are in a non-Muslim country. Muslims, if we don’t have each other, later on we don’t have a place. You never know. If something happens between here and your country, they’re against you. I heard what happened to Japan people in Second World War. They arrest all the Japanese who live here. So what do you think? When it comes to you too, who knows? Even after 9/11 and people with hijab told to go back home. When I see all this, it’s not safe to rent somebody’s place. If you own house, nobody going to come and say to get out from your own house. Nobody can say that. I’m thinking if something happens, Muslims, they have a shelter. Muslims who have a house, they have to provide to those people who don’t have a place to stay. You never know what’s going to happen. You have to have your own place to stay. Nobody can tell us, “Get out! This is not your place!”

Muslims, if they help each other, this life is going to be easy. But those Muslims, I don’t know why they are not making easy for other Muslims. They don’t have to think only back home. Back home, people live the way they live. Already they know, the poor is poor, the rich is rich. Those poor, they are many times happy. They supported by family, from people who has it, and that’s the way they live. But people in West is struggling too. Because you are not with your family, relatives not around you, and financially you are struggling, no one knows what you’re doing or how you suffering, and family back home they are waiting help from you. It’s really stressful. But these people who is here, if they help each other, there is more than a million Muslims. Those million Muslims, every day $1 is nothing. They can build their own village. They can provide a job to their kids. That’s the way they can become strong. Now this world is not like before. Connected on the Internet, connected like now what you guys are doing. Without seeing all these people, you can connect. You can connect and then you don’t have to be selfish and hungry for the money. Just work for ummah. If there is someone who work for ummah to help, wallahi everything is easy.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(20/21) Edmonton, Canada - My kids, they don’t know. They don’t understand how I struggled for them, for my kids to have a better life. They don't know what's going to come later on. Unless you into that problem, you don’t understand. For our kids, if you don’t have good credit, you can’t even rent a place. It’s really difficult even to get government house. How many people I see now, 3 or 4 or 5 years they couldn’t find government house? When they find the government house, most are disaster place. Apartment even is expensive. If you go good places to rent two-bedroom, it’s more expensive even than mortgage. If I rent and they tell me to go out, I am old lady. Where I’m going to go? I know this world is temporary, I’m not going to live here forever. If I have just a foundation for them, so wherever they go, they can come back and say this is our house. The government house, if I die, nobody going to let them to stay inside. That’s why I’m thinking for them.

I appreciate the way they care for me. They worry if I die, they can’t help me later on. When they say that, it makes me awake. It makes me to think a lot. Always I pray to God and I cry to Allah because I know Allah is Al-Ghafur Ar-Rahim. Always I am asking, “Ya Allah, just don’t kill me. You know You said I can ask you bigger things. Ya Allah, You are providing even those people doesn’t believe You. I am Your slave. I believe in You. Make it happen to pay off this house. Please, Ya Allah, help me.” Allah, the One who created me, knows my inside. Allah said don’t limit when you ask Him, ask Him whatever you want. What I’m seeing is, maybe that’s what Allah is bringing right now. You can see how God is rich. I depend on God to pay it off. God bring you here for free to work, to help me. Maybe He answering my duaa with you. Look the Power of God.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(19/21) Edmonton, Canada - Whatever job you get, do it. A good position will come later on. The difference between me and other people, me I don’t care about position, I just follow where is the money. If they pay here $20 and then I can get more somewhere else, I say bye bye. That’s what I advise people. Someone who works hard doesn’t choose. If you’re choosy about work, it will be more difficult. You have to work wherever it brings money, as long as it isn’t haram things. You don’t have a choice. If you came to my home and didn’t know my situation, you would think I’m rich. But how did the two houses come? Because I know my situation, if someone says that someone is rich because they have a big house, I don’t believe them. I just follow the opportunities I get: I went from $5 to $7 and I was happy, then to $12 and I was happy, then $21 and I was so happy. I didn’t want to be stuck, just see my opportunity. When it went to $25 I used to take a lot of overtime. Because of that, I afforded to buy a house there in Beaumont. People think I’m rich when they see I have this house in Edmonton.

Wallahi, the advice that I leave for Muslim woman or man is as a Muslim, we’re not standing beside each other. Those people who came into these Western countries is forgotten. If someone has a problem back home, they know this person has a problem. Maybe through relatives, through someone, just they want to help him. Here, people don’t help each other.

It doesn’t matter here or back home. There’s a lot of people here, they want to work anything that they get, but it’s very difficult for them to get a job. It’s so difficult. As Muslims, if people understand each other and help each other, making the ummah strong, turn by turn, you can change somebody’s life, you can change a lot of Muslims’ lives. But if you just say, here, we’ll just give you food, what’s it going to do for them? Tomorrow he needs. I never told my story to anybody, still. I don’t tell my story to everybody. I told it to you to encourage you. So may Allah make it easy for everyone.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(18/21) Edmonton, Canada - People feel what’s the point buying a house through Islamic when you can’t rent it out, you can’t make a business on your place, if the rent in your area is high you have to pay high monthly payment? So what’s my benefit? Am I working for them? They ask you whatever you can’t pay: is that help? In Canada banks, you can put 0% or 5% or 10%, whatever they adjust it for you your interest, and you feel like it’s your house you own to do what you want with it. Which one is easier?

For the credit card, in this country, mostly people live check to check. When you live check to check, and the family needs something, you use the credit card and think you will pay it quickly. Sometimes it’s hard to find a job; what will you do? It’s so hard. Even the government, to say the truth, they don’t understand for single adults who need help. For single people, doesn’t matter woman or man, it’s very hard. They give you maybe $500 for a month. With that $500, how are you going to survive? Where will you rent with that $500? What are you going to eat? Where is the transportation? This country is difficult, so that’s why when you have your credit card, what do you think? When you’re stuck, you will use it. When you use it, it’s hard to pay off, but what do you do? You don’t have a choice. Who’s going to give you money? Nobody’s going to give you money. And that’s embarrassing to ask. For me, I have a problem. I don’t want to hear someone who needs help, my family have problem and I be quiet. Even they don’t ask me, I pay. That’s my big problem. So that’s why now, if I pay off my credit card, I’m going to tear it. No more, I don’t need it. So I don’t know, difficulty is everywhere. This is Ramadan, may Allah make it easy for everybody.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(17/21) Edmonton, Canada - The system, the way everyone comes here, and we’re stuck here, it’s so difficult. It makes us stuck into riba. We don’t have Muslim community that works hard for their people. I searched before I bought this house, those Muslim companies are more ripping you off than these people. We don’t have Muslim community standing for Islam, standing for helping Muslim people not to go to the riba. So they are the ones pushing you to the riba, because they are the ones controlling you. They buy a house under their name, they ask you 25% you have to put down. To people it is a lot. They’re supposed to make it better. For you, if you are also paying them $3000 a month, how you going to save money to get out from this house or to own it? Also, you can’t rent out to someone to help you, so you can’t make a business out of this house to change your life. Is this Islam?

So my intention was Allah knows what those Muslims doing to us, so I’m thinking sometimes Allah is going to forgive me. Because these Muslims that are better than me and can lend me, they don’t want to help. What do you do then? How many years? 30 years you live in this country and you don’t have your own house, and then you have kids, your kids can’t own. Our kids, they can’t buy a house. It’s so expensive. That’s why a lot of people come from Ontario and other places to buy it here, because Alberta is a little bit okay, but the more people come to buy a house, the houses go up. Then what’s going to happen to our kids? They can’t even rent a place, so what’s going to happen to them? It’s so difficult. The Muslims they are making it difficult to Muslims. So if we have good Muslims that can help us, they can change a lot of Muslims’ lives. I understand nobody will buy it for you free, but they have to make it reasonable. They can buy a house for $500,000 and even add $100,000 on top for profit. Not to be interest, but when you’re doing a business and buy something for $2 you can sell it for $3. Make it so you know that this house is gonna finish for us. You guys agree at that time, you can rent it out, do business in it, you do whatever you want, as long as you pay.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(16/21) Edmonton, Canada - What bothers me being in this house, I’m scared from Allah what’s going to happen to me. What scares me is what’s going to happen when I die. Before, I didn’t take it serious. When I was young, we read the Quran but we didn’t know the meaning. I finished the Quran 3 times, but they don’t teach us the meaning. We knew Arabic only a little bit, it doesn’t mean you know the Quran language. It’s very different from the Arabic we learned. When people said riba is haram, I said what are they talking about? Is it in the Quran? I thought people were just saying it to scare us.

But I tried; when my first home it get sold, then I said, I don’t want to buy in this country, I don’t want riba. And then I sent my money to Dubai. They screw me up, and then I said, What am I doing? It’s okay, I’m gonna buy. Even some people, some sheikhs, they said that one house is okay to live in. That’s what we were hearing from people. You want to hear what you want. So I thought, it’s okay I’ll buy it. After the kids started knowing the deen deeply, they sat down with me and said this is haram and if you die, you’re going to be in trouble. Why do you want to stay in this house? Just sell it, and then let’s go to rent. I don’t like renting a place. Back home, we used to have our own house, and I was thinking inshaAllah I will pay it fast. Renting, you have no control.

I finished Quran when I was young, maybe 7 or 8 years old. After that, I never opened the Quran. Then, wallahi, when I started listening to Quran and read it now, I saw it said riba. Before I didn’t know what was riba; it was just a word, that’s what I used to think. I thought people were just talking, but now I knew what it was.

When I read Surah al-Baqara, always it touches me. I felt I didn’t want to read. Then I went to Surah Ale Imran, and it also talked about riba. It scares me. Whenever I would get to the riba part, I always took a big swallow and I say, “Ya Allah, don’t kill me!” I’m scared inside. I’m not happy inside. Even though I’m working very hard and trying to save to pay it, my life is not guaranteed, I don’t know when I’m going to die.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(15/21) Edmonton, Canada - I started my business in 2019. With my dad’s business when I was a kid, and our gas station in Vancouver, always business was on my mind. If you get laid off from the other job, what will you do? Also it’s tiring, working all your life for someone else. Like now because of my pain, I’m just tired, because my back hurt, my leg hurt. Just barely I walk in this house.

My dream is just to have my own business place to sell those long dresses, abayas, khamis for guys, hijabs. And my dream is if I get a bigger place that has first floor and second floor, on the first floor I do my own business, on the second floor my dream to teach Quran and to teach Arabic and Oromo language. To help community. There is a lot of people, Somali too, there is a lot of kids they don’t speak their own language. So my dream to teach their language. If I find Somali people to teach their language too. That’s my dream.

Always you choose whatever your family do. If your family a doctor, you’ll become a doctor. If your family selling clothes, that’s all what you know. Why I struggle most when I come to this country, if I had my own business, I will succeed, I know. By willing of Allah. But when I was young, just my dad he wants me to be in store, come back from Quran or school I used to stay in the store. That’s why I didn’t really like it when I came to this country. I said no, just like I have to do change. My sister, she didn’t used to like to stay in the store most of the time when we back home. But when she came here to Toronto, she opened her business. Then I said, “You used to didn’t like it. What happened now, why you like it?” When I was working in Italy as housekeeper, I sent her money. She was in Djibouti. Then with that money, she took a chance and she came to Italy. Before she came to Europe, she went to Ethiopia. My dad, he said to her, “90% of rizq is in tijara (trade business). So don’t go there and work for someone. Just find a way to do a business.” That’s what he told her. So she said to me, “My dad told me that. That’s why I’m opening my own store.”
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(14/21) Beaumont, Canada - I never thought I would buy a house here. My sister and me, we thought of Dubai. We wanted to live in a Muslim country. I wasn’t thinking to buy a house with riba here and pay it every month. Because even though I didn’t see it in the Quran then and didn’t know it, I heard people say it is haram. My sister paid around $20,000 and I paid around $40,000 to a company in Dubai. I was thinking, me and her, we were going to buy it cash, no riba, and the kids would live with us if we stay there. We sent it, then the company went bankrupt, and we lose the money.

We were in Beaumont more than 6 years. When I bought this house, I said it’s better to have a little bit bigger. I thought I was going to rent it out. That’s why I was thinking, in case something happens to me. If you live in small house, there is no safety plan. You always have to work like a renter, you just living to survive. You have to work all the time. I have to have at least a room to rent out and to survive. But not only for the bigger house. We sold the Beaumont house because there was no bus. Everybody was complaining. The kids didn’t like it. If they don’t have a car, all of them, it’s very hard to live in Beaumont. So that’s why I chose only a little bit bigger house. I never received full amount of rent from nobody. Even when a lady came for $500, I took from her $400, because there is people who had bad situation.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(13/21) Beaumont, Canada - I don’t know, it’s not good to think for the kids sometimes. When I was in Vancouver, we were thinking to buy a house. Always it was my idea, to have a house here or back home. At that time, it was like $350,000. The Indian woman we worked for at the gas station would say she bought a house 25 years ago for $20,000 or something like that. We would see it went from that to $350,000. It was so expensive! Today, it’s $2 million. So I was thinking if I don’t buy a house, it’s going to be difficult for my kids. Because back in the day, if we bought, today it’s paid off. If the price goes up, my kids can’t buy a house in this country, because our rich doesn’t go up, but the prices going up. Even here, the rent is going up. Now my daughter posted a basement for rent for $1000; in the past it was so hard to find someone, but now 3 people called her right away. So I was thinking, if the basement is $1000, if something happened to my kids, if they’re not lucky, if they couldn’t survive, what’s going to happen to them? That’s why I am working very hard to give them a home.

In the Beaumont house, I bought it for $380,000 or a little more. They were making it difficult to get the halal mortgage. They tell you to apply and be one of their members, then they put you on a waiting list, not approval. Just to register is difficult. I searched before I bought this house. I already bought the Beaumont house and had $350,000 left on it. I said to them, I have my own house, and I want to change from riba to you guys. They told me I have to be on their membership and then be put on their waiting list even though I already had my house, then they wanted 25% of what was still owed on the house from me. I didn’t have that, I only had $40,000 cash. They told me no. When I bought that place, I put down $42,000 or something like that. So they’re telling me, I paid $42,000, and they want another $80,000 something. They said they would have to see what the rent was like in my area. Beaumont was an expensive area. They want me to pay $2500 or $3000 a month on top of that. So it’s really difficult, this is very difficult.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima

04/10/2022

(12/21) Fort McMurray, Canada - I heard about Alberta through friends, so I applied for a job then I came there. The first job I got was housekeeping for $12 an hour. At that time, the minimum wage was $7.50 an hour. I liked here better than Toronto. Here it’s cold, but not a lot of wind. But Toronto, when the cold starts, it starts with the wind even before the snow. People think because there’s a lot of snow here it’s colder, but Toronto is colder. I prefer the -40°C here than the -16°C of Toronto. My shift was three weeks on, one week off. I liked it because the money was good. It was difficult without my family, but what do you have to do? I prefer to stay with my family and my kids, but if you stay, where is the money? How are you gonna survive? One person has to work. I worked 3 months housekeeping, then a Muslim man told me about a union job for $21 an hour as a housekeeper. Then I worked for them around 4 months, then I quit because I found a bus driver job for $25 an hour. I got my Class 2 driver’s license in Vancouver and was thinking to drive a city bus at that time, which is why I got it. In Vancouver, when I went to English class, our teacher told us there is opportunity if you want to drive a city bus. I was doing the bus driving for 6 years, then when I was laid off I went to housekeeping again. I did that for 8 years until I injured my back at work. I used to send back home sometimes $7000, $8000. Whatever I make, most of the money I used to send. I don’t buy expensive stuff. Just always I wear simple clothes or work clothes.

It’s hard to leave your kids and work on the camp in Fort McMurray. It was hard. Even sometimes I miss Eid and Ramadan with my family because of work. What do you do? I don’t know how to say this, it’s hard. Yeah, it feels sad. But what do you do? No choice.

You be sad, but not angry. Who you going to be angry with? It doesn’t help you. Nobody gonna believe you, when especially you’re working, they think always that you have a lot. For myself, as long as I am healthy, I can work. I can drive a taxi, drive a truck, whatever. If I am healthy, I am not going to look at somebody’s hand and ask them to help me.
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In this series, we aim to help refugee & immigrant single mothers: the women who’ve struggled, hustled, and suffered in silence for decades, and lived life stories of true inspiration. Help us get Habo Kerima back on her feet by supporting our LaunchGood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/habokerima