Support Manizha and Mehrnush at The University of Maryland

Hello to All of the Supporters of Manizha and Mehrnush:

Below you will be able to read an update from Manizha about how she and Mehrnush are doing in Maryland. As you will read, they are doing well. Before you read the letter from Manizha, I would like to ask those of you who have supported them to consider making another donation. Manizha cannot recieve funding from the Univeristy until next year. They still have the funds they were able to raise before leaving Tajikistan, but I am making a request so we can make their funding go a little bit further in the mean time. If you are able to make a donation, it would be greatly appreciated!

Best wishes,

Reed

To Our Supporters:

I just wanted to reach out and express my gratitude to everyone who has been supporting me and my daughter.

We’re both doing well. Mehrnush is thriving in school—she’s learning quickly and absorbing so much. She’s participating in an after-school activity, chorus club, and she even had a performance last month. I’m so impressed by her resilience and how easily she is adapting to a new culture. This is her first time living in a big city, and she’s already made many friends.

As for me, I’m almost finished with my first semester. It hasn't been easy, and we've faced a lot of challenges, but with determination and resilience, my daughter and I are overcoming those obstacles together.

Your kindness and support have made such a difference—thank you! I can see how much she's growing, and I’m so grateful for that. Thank you for helping me make my dream a reality and for giving my daughter the opportunity for a bright future.

With Gratitude,

Manizha

Hi, I’m Manizha. I am from Tajikistan and I am raising money because I have been accepted into a master's program at the University of Maryland in their program for Second Language Acquisition/Teaching! UMD’s Department of Persian Studies is a flagship program for teaching Persian languages. This would equip me with the skills to effectively teach not only English but Persian as a second language. My 10-year-old daughter, Mehrnush (“Monica”) is excited to come along and experience the wider world and American life.

But there is a huge obstacle: the cost, proof of $45,500 in hand, before I can get a visa. Time is very short, and the university’s recommended deadline for submitting all the paperwork, including proof of required finances, is June 21st. (It was June 1, but I was able to get a three-week extension. Yes, miracles do happen.)

The total that I need for our visas is $45,500. I have managed to raise $14,000 on my own, but I still need $31,500.

The money raised here will cover tuition and associated fees, books, insurance, and living expenses for myself and my daughter. In my country, it would take 15 years of my total income to cover this cost. It is a struggle.

I want to share with you the story of my road so far, and why I want this so badly for my daughter and myself:

I was born in a beautiful and mountainous country tucked in obscurity between China and Afghanistan. I entered kindergarten as the Soviet Union collapsed and the ensuing chaos and civil war engulfed our newly independent nation. I am from a small, tradition-bound town, where the education of girls past grade school was considered a waste. Parents arranged marriages for their children, and a girl's highest - and only - goal should be to serve her husband's parents and bear him children. Even as a child, I had a different view of the world and my place in it - or the place I wanted to have in it. The school system, like everything else, was broken, but it did not deter me from studying hard. Against all odds, public opinion, and poverty, but quietly encouraged by my father, I won a scholarship to the medical university in the capital. A pivotal moment in my life. No other girls from my age group were “crazy” enough to go on to higher education. But I had a passion to know, learn, experience, grow, teach, thrive, and inspire others to do the same. There was some confusion with my scholarship to the medical university, but I was able to obtain another scholarship to train as an English teacher. I did not know English, but I made the best of it, and found out I am a language teacher at heart!

Though I had married a man who said he approved of my studying, he later changed his mind. I lived in an extended family household, serving my hostile in-laws, as my husband became increasingly violent. We had just one small room, and our toddler witnessed the beatings. I almost lost who I was. But I kept my books under Monica’s crib, studied at night, and graduated with honors. A pivotal moment in my life came when I finally found the courage to defy societal expectations. take my daughter and walk out of my husband’s house rather than waiting to leave it in a coffin. Society shamed me and my husband stalked me for years, but my confidence, hopes, and dreams bloomed again.

I was chosen as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant /cultural ambassador, and spent a year at The University of Georgia Athens, teaching my language, auditing courses, and learning everything I could about America. One thing that deeply impressed me was the rigorous academic system/standards nonexistent in my country. I decided to try to come back and improve my education.

Back in my home country, Monica’s Dad took her for the weekend and refused to return her to me. For months, defying court orders, he held her as a pawn to entice me to return to him. He threatened suicide and I feared he might harm Monica. I miraculously emerged from a grueling court case with sole custody of my traumatized little girl. In our courts, that win was miraculous. This hard-fought battle means that I can move to the US with my daughter, and we can begin a new life and live freely without fear so that we can find healing and rebuild our sense of purpose and family. It would mean the WORLD to us!

I had to leave my husband’s home due to his brutal physical and emotional abuse. I would have become homeless, but a friend rented me her property at a reduced rate. I do have some money saved, but it is a drop in the bucket. (Once I am a student in the US, visa conditions prevent me from working, except for a part-time campus job.)

I am now so close to the goal...once again at a pivotal point. Only the obstacle of FUNDING remains. Would you consider contributing towards my study costs for this coming academic year? Would you also be willing to share my story with your friends and contacts? I have overcome many obstacles along my road, but this one...I can only move forward by the kindness and generosity of family, friends – and even strangers!

Thank you for your willingness to help me and Monica by supporting us financially! This opportunity will change our lives!

With Deep Gratitude,

Manizha (and Monica, too)