Needful of Assistance?
A story, a story of grief, of misfortune, appearing in the newspaper. It is reported for a singular purpose, to alert the public to the sad story of an immigrant family's circumstances. And in this instance the spotlight is focused on a family of four children, aged 6 to 1-1/2 years, and their father, a 38-year-old immigrant-refugee from Kenya who has lived in Canada with his wife, for the past five years. The wife, a woman 15 years junior to her husband, died tragically, from cancer.
When the wife's cancer was diagnosed, her husband stopped working at his job as a security guard for the purpose of looking after her and their four children. She died not long after giving birth to their fourth child who was three weeks old when she was diagnosed with the cancer that killed her. They have lived in social housing since their arrival in Ottawa from Kenya. He has not worked for over a year.
Her illness entitled the family to a monthly income of roughly $1,000 under the Ontario Disability Support Program. On that $1,000 income the family of five has lived sparingly. Even so, the husband undertook to plan a fitting funeral for his wife, with the assistance of a pastor from one of the two local evangelical churches the family attends. That funeral was an extremely costly one, leaving the man in debt to the tune of $16,500.
Because of the poverty in which the family lived they would quality for the city's social services department to have paid $2,370 for funeral services and up to $1,000 for burial. A substantial decrease in cost compared to the contract that the husband signed with a local funeral home. The funeral home accedes to the specific demands of the client; conspicuously absent any enquiry with respect to affordability as it would seen insensitively intrusive.
One of the churches that the husband attends has responded to his plight by assisting him with $500, all that the church could afford. His friends, charitably responding to his need, contributed another $8,500, to help him pay his debts. He had assumed that he would be enabled to pay off the remaining debt with the proceeds from his wife's life-insurance policy from which source he anticipated $100,000.
The policy, however, was nullified. He received a refund of about $150, representing the premiums he had paid into the policy. The problem was that in applying for the policy some extremely vital details that the insurance company requires to determine whether or not they would be prepared to take on the policy holder, were not disclosed. Information was withheld to ensure that the policy would be accepted.
The insurance application was absent full details of the state of health and behavioural information with respect to the individual to be covered. Now why would a family living in genteel poverty as new immigrants to a new country take out a life insurance policy on a 25-year-old woman? As for the funeral home, had it been divulged to the director that the individual making funeral arrangements was strapped for funding, they would be directed to the city.
"If the family chooses a $5,000 coffin over the $1,000 one, and they say 'we can afford it and that's what we want', we have nothing to say." Now that's fairly clear. The church which the man attends had already overdrawn its resources previously, by $4,000, to fund the wife's sister's travel to Canada, on a 6-month visa, to help care for the family. She is attempting to have the visa extended.
Within the period when the sister-in-law was present to assist in the care of the children, it would appear that the widower made no effort to find employment. In the interim, the father of the four children, the bereft husband, has applied for social assistance. However, an appeal is made to the public to assist the family with the cemetery bill.
Some story.
When the wife's cancer was diagnosed, her husband stopped working at his job as a security guard for the purpose of looking after her and their four children. She died not long after giving birth to their fourth child who was three weeks old when she was diagnosed with the cancer that killed her. They have lived in social housing since their arrival in Ottawa from Kenya. He has not worked for over a year.
Her illness entitled the family to a monthly income of roughly $1,000 under the Ontario Disability Support Program. On that $1,000 income the family of five has lived sparingly. Even so, the husband undertook to plan a fitting funeral for his wife, with the assistance of a pastor from one of the two local evangelical churches the family attends. That funeral was an extremely costly one, leaving the man in debt to the tune of $16,500.
Because of the poverty in which the family lived they would quality for the city's social services department to have paid $2,370 for funeral services and up to $1,000 for burial. A substantial decrease in cost compared to the contract that the husband signed with a local funeral home. The funeral home accedes to the specific demands of the client; conspicuously absent any enquiry with respect to affordability as it would seen insensitively intrusive.
One of the churches that the husband attends has responded to his plight by assisting him with $500, all that the church could afford. His friends, charitably responding to his need, contributed another $8,500, to help him pay his debts. He had assumed that he would be enabled to pay off the remaining debt with the proceeds from his wife's life-insurance policy from which source he anticipated $100,000.
The policy, however, was nullified. He received a refund of about $150, representing the premiums he had paid into the policy. The problem was that in applying for the policy some extremely vital details that the insurance company requires to determine whether or not they would be prepared to take on the policy holder, were not disclosed. Information was withheld to ensure that the policy would be accepted.
The insurance application was absent full details of the state of health and behavioural information with respect to the individual to be covered. Now why would a family living in genteel poverty as new immigrants to a new country take out a life insurance policy on a 25-year-old woman? As for the funeral home, had it been divulged to the director that the individual making funeral arrangements was strapped for funding, they would be directed to the city.
"If the family chooses a $5,000 coffin over the $1,000 one, and they say 'we can afford it and that's what we want', we have nothing to say." Now that's fairly clear. The church which the man attends had already overdrawn its resources previously, by $4,000, to fund the wife's sister's travel to Canada, on a 6-month visa, to help care for the family. She is attempting to have the visa extended.
Within the period when the sister-in-law was present to assist in the care of the children, it would appear that the widower made no effort to find employment. In the interim, the father of the four children, the bereft husband, has applied for social assistance. However, an appeal is made to the public to assist the family with the cemetery bill.
Some story.
posted by Pieface @ 6:08 PM
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