Asma from Sudan deserves a chance

Hello everyone,

I’m Michael Schmidt, I have created this campaign for my friend Asma from Sudan.
I’m an enthusiast backpacker. Around 2 years ago my curiosity drove me to Sudan. I was immediately impressed by the hospitality of Sudanese people. Due to various sanctions, it was not easy to acquire a tourism Visa, and this is exactly where Asma played the role. Without even having seen me, she offered her assistance and took care of some of my visa requirements (Letter of Invitation) and arranged for my stay for the first few nights. I have rarely met someone as open-minded and interesting as Asma.

Through this donations campaign, I would like to give back and help Asma achieve her goals for the future and study in South Africa. She needs our support to cover her living expenses.
If you have any concersn, you can contact me at any time. I will be responsible for collecting the donations and then transfer them to Asma and guarantee that she will have received them properly. Also, I will keep posting the updates.

The introduction above wasn’t enough to narrate the full story, down here Asma tells more about her story and future plans:

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Hi, my name is Asma, I’m Sudanese. As an unpopular opinion, I can say that, as a dreamy person, I’m wholeheartedly grateful for my life in Sudan regardless the daily struggles that we encounter, I become wiser and more mature every day, developing incredible ability and patience that empower me to keep moving forward. I graduated last December with a BSc in Information Technology. My graduation project was Image processing for gender classification, the reason behind the huge interest that I developed towards computer vision and research.

I was lucky to find an opportunity in South Africa to pursue a master program in Machine Learning, Computer Vision at KwaZulu Natal University in Durban. As my father was an agricultural engineer who had a history of 30 years working for the Jazeera Agriculture Scheme in Sudan, I grew up attached to trees and birds, nature was always my refuge and therapy. This background played a remarkable role in my future career orientation. For the program, I chose to work on a project that helps farmers detect the disease of their plants enabling them to increase their production and decrease the disastrous consequences that diseases might cause as a major threat to agriculture which also has a huge impact on food security and the quality of the food provided to the end consumers as well as climate change on the long term. I have always had an interest in working for food security and plant prevention directly or indirectly so this opportunity has a key role in nurturing future prospects for my mission in supporting food and nature programs.

Fortunately, the university will cover my admission fees for the whole period of the program. I have to cover my living expenses in Durban that’s why I’m raising this campaign as I need some fund for at least the stay of the first period of time during which I will seek a job to secure my further stay there until I finish the program.

I want to thank all of you to read my story and for any support!

Asma