The Dream of a Rural Girl!
Donation protected
I am a single mother from the Northern part of Nigeria. Where I come from, women are seen as property. Your father owns you and then your husband owns you. Your place is in the kitchen or by your husband, and that is why girls as young as 12 or 13, or even eight are married with babies. Despite this gloomy context, some of the strongest women I know come from that region and they are my mother and sisters . We come from a state, Borno and Yobe, where the terrorist group, Boko Haram, is actively ravaging. They kidnap young girls from high school dormitories, make them their wives, and force them into suicide bombing themselves.
I have also survived domestic violence and I am a divorcee because I insisted I would get a career. I was 3 months pregnant when I left my abusive ex husband and the only job I could get was as a teacher trainee which paid about $125 monthly (based on today's exchange rate), and barely enough for myself and my daughter to survive. I moved back to my family house and my mother became my rock. I got promoted to a classroom teacher in just 2 weeks of being a teacher trainee and went back to school to get a post graduate diploma in education.
My mother encouraged me to travel and see what other teachers are doing in other parts of the world and my quest eventually brought me to The University of Texas at Austin where I am currently working on a Ph.D in Special Education, majoring in learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. My area of research is reading and preventing reading disabilities. I provide support to teachers in Nigeria with their students who struggle with reading via email, Skype and WhatsApp.
My plan is to go back to Nigeria to establish a world-class school in rural areas, and provide free and subsidized education to children who will otherwise not have access to education. This school will include a special education section that will help children with special needs get a much-needed start in life. Dyslexia and Autism have only just started to gain some understanding and little acceptance, and I plan to facilitate a higher rate of social acceptance for disabilities. I also plan to build a teacher training center where we will train educators to teach children to read.
Today, I am soliciting your support with this GoFundMe for two reasons. The first is that I need to attend the Pacific Coast Research conference taking place in California February 2019. The second is support me to conduct a teacher training on how to teach reading to students with and without disabilities in Nigeria in the summer of 2019.
For the conference, here is the breakdown of the cost and directions on how you can directly provide your support:
1. Mail a check made payable to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with your name and “PCRC 2019” in the memo field to:
Peggy Chatfield
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
230 Appleton Place
PMB 74
Nashville, TN 37203
2. Call Peggy Chatfield at (615) [phone redacted] and pay by credit card.
Early bird registration payment ($400) must be received by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. All unpaid registration will increase to $475 on Friday, Nov 16. All payments must be received by Friday, Dec. 14, 2018. Registration is not available past that date.
Hotel Reservations (from the conference director)
If you have not yet made your reservation with Loews Coronado, please do so by calling (619) [phone redacted]. or reserving online here. You will receive the discounted rate of $229/night (single occupancy), which includes breakfast on both Friday and Saturday mornings. For a full list of benefits received, please see the conference website.
I will be staying for a total of 3 nights(Thursday, February 21st to Sunday, February 24th) and that brings the total to $687 without tax.
The airline ticket to California at the moment costs about $280.
If you have any questions about this conference please contact the conference manager:
Elizabeth Turner
Pacific Coast Research Conference
(615) [phone redacted].
For the Nigerian Training I hope to train about 200 teachers on how to teach reading to students with and without disabilities from 8:00am-4:00pm on June 1st 2019.
The Venue is going to cost $900 to reserve.
Breakfast and Lunch for the participants is going to cost $1200.
Materials and handouts for the participants is going to cost $500
The airline return ticket to Nigeria for myself and my daughter is going to cost $2500.
I believe that if women can read and learn for themselves it will liberate them and help them break the cycle of poverty. I am a strong believer in the power of an education and that is why my passion is to teach reading to women in Nigeria.
Please help me make my dream of attending PCRC 2019 conference and Training Teachers in Nigeria come true. The total amount I am soliciting from you is $6,700. My rounded-up expense is $6500 plus the anticipated $200 charges that will be deducted by GoFundMe.
Thank you for your time, shares, and kind donations.
I have also survived domestic violence and I am a divorcee because I insisted I would get a career. I was 3 months pregnant when I left my abusive ex husband and the only job I could get was as a teacher trainee which paid about $125 monthly (based on today's exchange rate), and barely enough for myself and my daughter to survive. I moved back to my family house and my mother became my rock. I got promoted to a classroom teacher in just 2 weeks of being a teacher trainee and went back to school to get a post graduate diploma in education.
My mother encouraged me to travel and see what other teachers are doing in other parts of the world and my quest eventually brought me to The University of Texas at Austin where I am currently working on a Ph.D in Special Education, majoring in learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. My area of research is reading and preventing reading disabilities. I provide support to teachers in Nigeria with their students who struggle with reading via email, Skype and WhatsApp.
My plan is to go back to Nigeria to establish a world-class school in rural areas, and provide free and subsidized education to children who will otherwise not have access to education. This school will include a special education section that will help children with special needs get a much-needed start in life. Dyslexia and Autism have only just started to gain some understanding and little acceptance, and I plan to facilitate a higher rate of social acceptance for disabilities. I also plan to build a teacher training center where we will train educators to teach children to read.
Today, I am soliciting your support with this GoFundMe for two reasons. The first is that I need to attend the Pacific Coast Research conference taking place in California February 2019. The second is support me to conduct a teacher training on how to teach reading to students with and without disabilities in Nigeria in the summer of 2019.
For the conference, here is the breakdown of the cost and directions on how you can directly provide your support:
1. Mail a check made payable to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with your name and “PCRC 2019” in the memo field to:
Peggy Chatfield
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
230 Appleton Place
PMB 74
Nashville, TN 37203
2. Call Peggy Chatfield at (615) [phone redacted] and pay by credit card.
Early bird registration payment ($400) must be received by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. All unpaid registration will increase to $475 on Friday, Nov 16. All payments must be received by Friday, Dec. 14, 2018. Registration is not available past that date.
Hotel Reservations (from the conference director)
If you have not yet made your reservation with Loews Coronado, please do so by calling (619) [phone redacted]. or reserving online here. You will receive the discounted rate of $229/night (single occupancy), which includes breakfast on both Friday and Saturday mornings. For a full list of benefits received, please see the conference website.
I will be staying for a total of 3 nights(Thursday, February 21st to Sunday, February 24th) and that brings the total to $687 without tax.
The airline ticket to California at the moment costs about $280.
If you have any questions about this conference please contact the conference manager:
Elizabeth Turner
Pacific Coast Research Conference
(615) [phone redacted].
For the Nigerian Training I hope to train about 200 teachers on how to teach reading to students with and without disabilities from 8:00am-4:00pm on June 1st 2019.
The Venue is going to cost $900 to reserve.
Breakfast and Lunch for the participants is going to cost $1200.
Materials and handouts for the participants is going to cost $500
The airline return ticket to Nigeria for myself and my daughter is going to cost $2500.
I believe that if women can read and learn for themselves it will liberate them and help them break the cycle of poverty. I am a strong believer in the power of an education and that is why my passion is to teach reading to women in Nigeria.
Please help me make my dream of attending PCRC 2019 conference and Training Teachers in Nigeria come true. The total amount I am soliciting from you is $6,700. My rounded-up expense is $6500 plus the anticipated $200 charges that will be deducted by GoFundMe.
Thank you for your time, shares, and kind donations.
Organizer
Zainab Aliyu Umar
Organizer
Austin, TX
