Hey all,

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Taha and I’m a current third-year international student at the University of Victoria, and as of late, been having a hard time being able to fund my tuition.

I am financially independent, currently working two jobs and taking on a full course load (as I am on a study permit, I have to be a full-time student while in Canada). Even with the income I have coming in, I am still falling short on being able to fund my tuition fully, I don’t have a lot of resources available to me that most students do, and because of how much mental and physical energy is required of me daily to juggle all three commitments and worry about finances, my daily livelihood is being affected.

I am constantly stressed and anxious that I won’t be able to meet my commitments; I’m falling behind on my academics and being unable to focus my energy on actually getting an education. I thought the current system I have in place, one that I’ve had in place since last summer, would help me and it has — it just isn’t sustainable long term at all.

My study permit is expiring soon, and I need to demonstrate that I can and have paid tuition in order to be granted an extension on the permit so I can stay here and complete my education. Although I plan to continue working both jobs I currently have, I will not be able to demonstrate this entirely on my own before my permit is up and I don’t have the option to pack up and leave because I’ve already worked so hard to start and build a new life here in Canada, found a group of beautiful people that I now call family and worked hard to maintain my GPA while completing over half my undergraduate degree. I don’t want to give this all up, and I don’t want to give up. I want to be able to move forward in my life, but a lot of the steps I am taking right now are not proving to be enough.

The last time I made a gofundme, I was able to reach my goal because my communities came out to support me. They proved that when you reach out and ask for support, there are people out there who are willing to help. I had forgotten that, and for the longest time, I believed that because I did it once and it worked, I couldn’t do it again. A very special someone in my life recently reminded me that the world is full of good people, people who care and would understand my struggle. He reminds me of this daily, and it’s time I started believing it because it has been proved to me many times before.

If you have the capacity to donate, thank you. If you cannot donate but have the capacity to share this, thank you for that too. No amount is too small to help. I appreciate it in more ways than you can imagine.