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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Single father pleads for help as tragedy after tragedy hits family

by

Radhica De Silva
20 days ago
20250625

In just three years, Arnold Mo­hammed watched his life col­lapse piece by piece. First, his home in Paray­al Trace, Rio Claro col­lapsed due to a land­slip. Then his wife left. Now, he fears he is los­ing his el­dest daugh­ter, who has start­ed self-harm­ing.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at his rent­ed Pas­cal Road, Pi­paro home, Arnold ad­mit­ted that his strug­gles are worse be­cause he can­not read or write well.

“I do the best that I can. I am not a dead-beat fa­ther and I’m do­ing the best that I can for my chil­dren,” Mo­hammed said, with tears in his eyes.

He has two daugh­ters aged 19 and 13, as well as a sev­en-year-old son. Mo­hammed said his el­dest daugh­ter is autis­tic and can­not be left alone.

“She can­not speak. When she has out­bursts, she grabs the knife and cuts her­self,” Mo­hammed ex­plained, show­ing off the scars on her hand.

It’s why he can­not risk go­ing to work.

“Now that their moth­er is gone, I don’t want to leave them and then come home to find blood on the floor,” Mo­hammed said. He added that life has been dif­fi­cult, but a near­by church and a few neigh­bours have been chip­ping in to bring them gro­ceries.

His biggest headache is pay­ing their month­ly rent of $1,500.

“Since the house fell down I’m rent­ing. I’m mov­ing here, I’m mov­ing there. It is very hard to be a fa­ther with an autis­tic daugh­ter, but right now I have no choice but to ask for help be­cause the rent is killing me,” he said.

He ex­pressed grat­i­tude to a kind woman who do­nates gro­ceries once a month. Mo­hammed said he nev­er ap­plied for a food card, and he has no sta­ble in­come.

“I reap­plied for pub­lic as­sis­tance for my daugh­ter, but they told me that will take two or three months,” he ex­plained.

With his moth­er and moth­er-in-law both ill, there is lit­tle his fam­i­ly can do to help.

De­spite the pain, Mo­hammed said he would not aban­don his chil­dren.

“I want them to get the ed­u­ca­tion I nev­er had. I don’t want them to end up like me,” he said.

Mo­hammed re­vealed that he grew up in Rio Claro and left school in Stan­dard Two. He said his mind could not grasp read­ing or writ­ing.

“I tried to go to school, but I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t write. From small, I just didn’t get it. But I don’t want my chil­dren to go through what I did, that is why I am try­ing so hard with them,” he re­vealed.

He said his 13-year-old daugh­ter is help­ing his son with read­ing. Both at­tend the Pi­paro Pres­by­ter­ian School, which is with­in walk­ing dis­tance from their home.

Mo­hammed said the stress is too much.

“The chil­dren are cry­ing. They miss their moth­er, and I could see the sad­ness in their faces.”

Mo­hammed said his autis­tic daugh­ter was en­rolled in a Spe­cial Needs school in Rio Claro but af­ter they lost the house, she could no longer at­tend.

“We moved many times. Her autism get worse,” he said.

Some­times, he goes to Rio Claro to get work.

“I do a lit­tle tiling and paint­ing but work is not reg­u­lar,” he said.

Even though he has no in­come, he dreams of one day own­ing a home again.

“I just want a place to stay. A job near­by. My chil­dren are do­ing well in Pi­paro school. They have a church right across the road. I don’t want to move them again. Every time we move, it sets them back,” he said.

With the Ju­ly/Au­gust hol­i­days ap­proach­ing, Mo­hammed said he is wor­ried about how he would af­ford school books, uni­forms and sta­tionery.

“My daugh­ter is go­ing to grad­u­ate, and I don’t even know how I’ll pay for her books. But I want her to be proud of me. I want her to look back and say ‘Dad­dy couldn’t read or write but at least he did his best’.”

Mo­hammed said he want­ed peo­ple to hear his sto­ry and learn from his mis­takes.

“To the chil­dren, go to school and get your ed­u­ca­tion,” he said.

For now, Mo­hammed said he will con­tin­ue to pray and live in hope.

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist Mo­hammed can call 373-9054. Do­na­tions can be made to Arnold Mo­hammed Re­pub­lic Bank Ac­count # 520-024-377-131


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