Help Minahil in her fight for education

Minahil is a 23-year-old girl based in Lahore, Pakistan. Living in a society where marriage is given priority over attaining good education and career for girls, Minahil hopes to fight for her right to education and for autonomy over her life. Recently she was accepted into the Illinois State University MBA program as an international student. She was awarded a merit based Graduate Assistantship in research that waives off the tuition fees worth almost 14000 US dollars. Despite this massive assistance, she still has the obstacle of a mandatory fee worth 2000$ per semester, flight, and the Visa application fee. All her savings are only enough to help her get a visa and her conservative parents would rather get her married than send her for higher education. 

Her parents have told her that she can go to the university if she can prove she has enough funding to sustain herself there. They know she cannot manage to do that on her own hence they’ve given this option so she would stay in Pakistan and they could get her married.

She will work 2 jobs there for 20 hours a week but they will only help her cover the living expenses in Bloomington near ISU. For someone who has no generational wealth and no family financial support, this seemingly impossible amount is the only thing that stands between her and her dream to do a masters and help her community back. She needs your help with the rest of the mandatory fees of her 3 semesters.

Last year, her dad lost his job due to the pandemic and her family is still struggling with financial problems. Her father has a low-paying, temporary job that is barely enough to get the bills paid and monthly grocery. And he has never been able to earn enough and save for his daughters’ education. And as of now, her mom works in a school but doesn’t earn enough to save this much amount to send her off to study for her masters.

She’s had a stellar academic record with a 3.92 CGPA and a gold medal awarded to her for attaining the highest CGPA in the entire batch. She was also placed in the Principal’s Honor List. She loves to study and this Masters has been her dream. During her college she successfully contested the elections for the Deputy Life sciences and served in the college student council. Minahil has worked really hard to build her career and achieve her dreams. She has been a preschool teacher because she loves working with kids. She often visits the orphan kids at SOS and one day hopes to start an orphanage or a child protection bureau herself. 

She has always been working passionately with the local feminist movement in mobilizing communities to support women's rights in Pakistan in the face of fierce opposition. She knows what it’s like to have no autonomy over your life decisions as her parents always dictated and controlled her. That is one reason why she is not ready to let go of this opportunity. Your small donation can help her change the course of her life.

She did not choose being born in a less privileged family or a low-income family, but wants to break out of the cycle. This opportunity will help her change her life and in turn the lives of people around her. 

She is turning to GoFundMe as a last resort because there is no way for her to change her financial status in time. She has exhausted all of her options and is now looking for your help with the payment. Please, if you have expendable income, please do consider donating for her so she can go to Grad school. Any donations, big or small, are greatly appreciated and will help Minahil to push through and get the education she needs to further her work, especially in these trying times under the pandemic. 

“If you can donate that’s amazing, if not, believe me I understand. Everybody is struggling financially and we are living in tough times. If you can, please share it to your friends and family,” she says.