A homeless family holds a sit-in at their burned-down house in Sanabis, 100% damaged.

Yesterday, Tuesday (June 9, 2015), a Bahraini family staged a sit-in in front of their burning house in the Sanabis area to appeal to the official authorities to extend a helping hand to them after their house burned down a few days ago and was 100 percent damaged, which resulted in the family being dispersed without a home. This came after the head of the family knocked on all official doors, with no results other than promises to look into the matter, while no party took practical action to reunite the family in one residence.

The head of the family, Hussein Abbas Marhoon, spoke to Al-Wasat, saying: “The accident occurred last Saturday at two o’clock after midnight due to an electrical short circuit, as stated in the Civil Defense report. I was sleeping with my family when the electricity suddenly went off. I woke up and the house was all smoke. I went straight to the power transformer to turn it off, and sparks were flying from it, so I felt the situation was bad.”

He added, “In order to avoid disaster, I went directly to my wife and children’s room and helped them all get out, and then I went to the section where my brother lives to alert them. Praise be to God, no one from the family was harmed, and this is the most important thing, but the house is no longer fit for habitation and the percentage of damage according to the Civil Defense is 100 percent.”

Regarding the family’s situation at the present time, he pointed out that “the house is not suitable for housing, so my family was dispersed and we were distributed among the parents’ homes until relief comes.”

The Marhoon family, during their sit-in, wanted to appeal to the responsible authorities to quickly move to find shelter for them. The head of the family is a simple employee at the Ministry of Health, and his salary barely covers the needs and expenses of the family, which consists of nine members. He left no door but to knock and hope to reunite his family in one house again. He stressed that he “knocked on all doors.” I went to the Ministry of Housing, Dar Al Karama, the Ministry of Development and the Capital Governorate. All of these parties asked me for my information, my family information, my place of work, and even my salary. I provided each party with what they requested, but none of those parties took the initiative or returned the call, and what I have received so far are only promises that they will look into my matter or send an examiner to the house.” Pointing out, “I have had a housing application since 1996, and my application will soon complete its twentieth year. During my housing review, I asked them to consider my application, and they promised me that, and I am waiting for a response from them that will bring a smile to my family.”

Marhoon also expressed his dissatisfaction with the delay in the arrival of the Civil Defense and the police station’s request for a sum of money for the report. He said that everything he owned was destroyed by the fire and that his psychological state was bad, so he was surprised by the employee asking him for five dinars, the value of the report. He became angry before one of the employees intervened and handed him the report without a fee. He noted, “It is never appropriate to ask for fees from someone who has just emerged from a disaster. The amount is not the problem; The problem is the timing of his request.”