Hi, everyone! This is our friend Veronique, and she needs our help! Our daughter, Audra, met Veronique at the college while taking PSEO classes, and they quickly became friends. Veronique moved to Hibbing in August 2025 from the Cape Flats area of Capetown, South Africa. She traveled here on a student visa and is currently completing prerequisites and general ed credits while she waits for a spot in the nursing program at Minnesota North College.

Veronique's mother had taken out loans to cover the cost of her schooling, however, Veronique's mother was tragically murdered in her home in Cape Flats, Capetown, South Africa during an armed robbery by a local gang member shortly after Veronique arrived in the USA. Veronique recently learned the student loan payments they had set up will no longer be dispersed to pay for her education due to the death of her mother. The bank in South Africa will not allow Veronique to take over responsibility for repayment of the loans her mother had secured. She can not secure student loans through FAFSA here in the USA due to her visa status. She has no credit or collateral to secure a private personal loan from another lender, and she does not have any savings to use for her tuition. Veronique is not only navigating the unimaginable loss of her mother from halfway around the world but also the potential loss of her education, physical safety, future career, hopes, and dreams.

If Veronique is unable to pay for her Spring tuition in the next ten days, her student visa will be revoked and she will face immediate deportation which would result in Veronique being sent back to Cape Flats and becoming homeless in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Veronique was adopted from the foster care system. She not only lost her adoptive mother to gang violence recently, but as a young teenager, she also endured a friend being shot and killed in front of her very eyes by the same gangs that now have taken her mother. She has no family left to help her, no home to return to, and her belongings were discarded after their rental was cleaned out upon her mother's death, so she has only the clothes she brought with her when she arrived for school. She's terrified! She needs 15% paid by January 16, 2026 to remain enrolled in school and safe. (That's $791.55!) The remaining balance is due in February.

Veronique has lost too much in her young life. Please, help us cover her Spring 2026 tuition and student housing costs so she can remain enrolled in school and safe. Finding employment has been difficult for her due to her lack of transportation, but we plan to help her find a job so she can start saving to pay for next semester as soon as possible. It would be amazing if we could cover more than one semester and take this burden off her shoulders, but the immediate need is for this semester's tuition! All donations will go directly to Minnesota North College to cover her tuition and student housing fees. (Her bill is attached.)

Veronique is kind, smart, brave, resilient, and hard-working. She deserves to stay safe here in Hibbing while she chases her dreams and finishes her education. Let's give her the opportunity to build a secure future for herself! Thank you for your consideration! -Veronique's friends, the Murden Family