By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A rallying community donated more than $100,000 to support a grief-stricken family who lost their four-year-old boy in a house fire in Dandenong.
Rithish Kirushnaneethan died despite desperate attempts to rescue him from his bedroom as his family home in Leonard Street was engulfed in flames about 10pm on Sunday 25 July.
Victorian Tamil Association as well as a separate Go Fund Me page have been set up to collect cash and donations for the shattered and homeless family.
The asylum-seeker family lost all of their savings and belongings in the awful inferno.
Within a week, the Go Fund Me page had collected more than $101,000 from about 1600 donors. All proceeds will go towards accommodation, furniture, clothing, and food for the family as well as a grave site and headstone for Rithish.
Donations were also to go towards Rithish’s funeral service, but a funeral director has subsequently offered the service for free.
Tamil Community Association secretary Murugesu Paramanathan said there had been an “absolutely fantastic” community outpouring of clothes, furniture and white-goods.
About $7000 in cash had also been donated to the cause, he said.
A stunning example of generosity was a Dandenong woman who offered her recently-deceased mother’s furniture, beds and household items.
Mr Paramanathan said the next step was to find suitable accommodation.
In the meantime, City of Greater Dandenong has arranged for about $1400 aid for new clothes and basic supplies from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and The Salvation Army.
It also organised for culturally-appropriate bereavement counselling for the family from Monash Health’s refugee health and wellbeing service.
Local MPs are believed to be also lobbying to ensure substantial hospital costs are waived for the family, who are not entitled to Medicare.
Friends of Refugees has also offered to help the family find suitable housing, move in and furnish their new home. It is also fully supporting a male boarder, who was seriously burnt while trying to bravely rescue Rithish.
Go Fund Me page co-organiser and Greater Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad liaised with many of the willingly helpful groups.
“My phone has not stopped ringing from people offering support.
“No one can bring back their boy but the practical, psychological, and emotional comfort these people have provided, is incredible.
The Dandenong community is a very caring and capable community, and when Council and community work together, incredible things happen.”
On 25 July, Rithish’s mother had been cooking in the kitchen when she noticed the couch and then the room engulfed in flames.
His nine-year-old brother and three-year-old sister were rescued by the mother and the boarder.
The mother suffered cuts to her hands and smoke inhalation. She desperately tried to break through Rithish’s bedroom window as she heard her son’s crying inside, she later told Seven News.
Rithish’s father returned from running errands to find the home consumed by fire.
After their discharges from hospital, they are staying with a relative in Pakenham.
Cr Garad said the family was “gutted”, with the mother particularly distraught by the tragic loss of her son.
“She is eating herself alive with guilt.
“She said her son wanted to go to bed early and so she was cooking in the kitchen and just saw the flicker of flames and them the whole area was on fire.
“She is beyond broken.”
The asylum-seeker family had arrived in Australia after a long journey by boat from Sri Lanka in 2012. They had been detained on Christmas Island and in Adelaide, and remained on a bridging visa for nine years, according to the Go Fund Me page.
They had moved into their home from Perth two weeks ago.
Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre deputy chairperson Wicki Wickiramasingham said Dandenong’s vast refugee community was shocked.
“The family survived war, cyclones and they came all the way from Sri Lanka by boat. It’s so very bad for them – a family of young children.
“In Sri Lanka they feared for their life. I’m just really, really sad for them.”
He urged the community to come to the aid of the family.
Cash donations can be made to Tamil Community Association BSB 063 894, account number 1049 6414 or go to the Go Fund Me page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/funeral-for-rithish
Tamil Community Association volunteers are also available to collect donated clothes, furniture and whitegoods from homes. Details: Murugesu Paramanathan, 0408 360 865 or m.paraman@gmail.com
