Hanifah and her 3 children 13, 12 and 6, have been placed in temporary housing in a Travelodge in Rochester after being evicted and made homeless, through no fault of their own, from a private rental in Blackheath on Friday 12th April.
One room, no cooking facilities not even a microwave, no support network, none of their belongings, no friends.
It is £233.17 for train tickets from Rochester to Dartford for her children to travel to and from school. The council has informed her that they are not able to help with these payments in any way and her placement in the temporary accommodation is ‘until further notice’.
We have contacted both schools, the council, her MP, her three councillors, welfare support and, while we want to give a huge shout out to Cllr Mariam Lolavar for doing everything she can, all we've been able to find is an extra £10 per person per week and food bank vouchers (for tins....which she can't cook....)
Her children have had a lot of upheaval in their lives, the family are refugees with indefinite leave to remain and the eldest 2 were reunited with her from Uganda back in 2021, they have settled really well at school and are thriving. Her youngest has complex needs and is struggling to understand why her life has changed so much so suddenly. They desperately need to stay at school to maintain some semblance of normality and structure at this confusing and difficult time but from Monday Hanifah simply cannot afford the train travel to get them there.
Hanifah herself is a powerhouse of a woman who has faced so much in her life and every time she's knocked down she builds her life back up stronger than before. Since arriving with no education and little English she has worked her way up to Level 4 in Childcare, volunteers in child and social care and has been driving determinedly towards working, contributing to society, saving and giving herself and her kids the future they deserve. This has been a devastating setback.
We will continue to work tirelessly to get her back to the borough in stable housing and to find the money to get her kids to school from where it should be coming from. But in the meantime, any help you can give, no matter how small will make more of a difference than you can know.
Thank you.