Dubai TV has paid tributes to a heroic Bangladeshi housemaid who saved the life of four children before drowning in Abu Dhabi’s waters last week.
Emirates247.com, an online news portal, reported this on Tuesday.
According to the report, the TV announcer started the programme by saying the maid “sacrificed her life to save the lives of her employers’ children".
“This incident totally contravenes accusations against housemaids in the UAE…it could be a result of good treatment of the maid by her employers,” he said.
“She was so brave and sacrificed her life for our children without hesitation. She paid with her life for this noble and courage act,” he said.
He said he was in touch with Safiya’s family in Bangladesh to arrange for the repatriation of her body and to raise funds from the families whose kids were rescued to send money to her family.
The TV also hosted the maid’s employers and their saved children who spoke about how the maid rushed after them and plucked them one after another.
“She got us out of the water but the waves took her,” one child said.
The four boys were playing on the sand before venturing towards the water in Dabiya beach, prompting the maid, Safiya, to scream and chase them into deep water.
She plucked and pushed them one after another until their relatives were able to take them out of the water, but the maid was stuck in strong currents.
“She did a heroic act by saving my son and his three friends. We all owe this woman and we are all saddened by her death,” Abu Abdullah said last week.
He said the rescued boys are aged between six and 10 years, and that Safiya had been with his family for nearly four years, adding that she had planned to get her daughter married in the next two months.