MY Project USA Is Protecting & Empowering Youth & Families with A Holistic Approach
Providing Food, Clothing, Housing, Safety, Advocacy, Legal Aid, Youth & Adult Education & More Services On Weekly Basis
Your Continued Support Help Us Continue Empowering Them Through This winter
Dear Family,
Three things this morning:
ONE: We Have To Pay Rents & Bills Both Russ Harris and I are not able to give much time to the organization due to personal health/family health issues. MY Project USA is at a serious all time low cash flow crises. We have payments to be collected and merchandise to be sold, but it will take at least one more month for me to catch up hoping that my mother will keep recovering without any hiccup in the meantime.
I am scrambling to pay rents of our store, warehouse, utilities and next week's salaries. I have already maxed out my own donations and loans to the organization and can't do more at this point. I need your prayers and financial support more than ever.
Here is a Facebook Fundraiser.More Ways to Donate: Please donate generously and share it with others. Your donations will help us continue making a difference in the lives of hundreds of people on weekly basis.Please Donate & Ask Others to Donate. After Allah, I am relying on you.
TWO: Muslim Youth Townhall: Breaking The Silence This is an important event to bring our youth, adults, community leaders and elected officials on the same page about the challenges our youth face within our community. Jasmin Osman, Ifrah Udgon, Siyat Mohamed and others will share their personal stories. Please see the details below and encourage everyone in the Columbus area to attend.
THREE: We Need Winter Clothes We have received a request from an elementary school on the Eastside of Columbus for the winter coats, gloves, shoes etc. This is in addition to the need we have on the westside of the Columbus. Please see the details below and donate as many as you can.
In Solidarity with Youth & Families,
Zerqa Abid,
Founder & Executive Director,
MY Project USA
‘Monster in our community’: East African youth break the silence over addiction - A Video by Sahan Journal
MY Project USA invites entire Muslim Community & Friends to join us for a Face to Face Conversation of Muslim Youth Activists, Leaders & Advocates with the Adult Muslim Leaders & Elected Officials.
This Townhall is all about the Protection & Empowerment of Muslim Youth in Central Ohio. Youth Activists will share their stories and ask questions at this event. Columbus area youth are encouraged to submit their request to speak ASAP but no later than Friday, November 15th.
We believe, it's time to evaluate What is being done for these youth and their families. It's time hear the voices of our youth directly from them. It's time to make them part of the solution. It's time to Empower our Youth with Resources they need to help themselves and others. It's time to Secure Our Future.
Help Us Save & Empower A Young Bright Woman - A Survivor of Family and Institutional Violence At A Quran School in Somalia
Check Out Jasmin Osman's Full Story on Columbus Monthly's Website
"She risked life and limb fleeing an abusive Somali boarding school for wayward Muslim women and girls. But when Jasmin Osman returned home to Columbus, she did something just as courageous: She told her story.
Friday was the day Jasmin Osman chose for her escape. A Friday would be best, she remembers thinking, because it was the day off for the more agile of the two female guards at Daarul Rayxaan, the abusive “boarding school” in Hargeisa, Somaliland, where Jasmin, then 19, had been imprisoned for more than seven months. The other woman was overweight, and Jasmin figured she could outrun her. Early in the morning, the two male guards would still be sleeping. And on this Friday, unlike so many others, Jasmin was allowed to sleep without her legs chained together."
Please help us get them back on her feet. You can donate on Facebook. Facebook does not charge any fee for credit card processing so al of your money comes to us.
"One of the things that disturbed me the most," Zerqa Abid noted in the earlier days of MY Project USA, "was the fact that so many moms at the last MY Eid Goodwill Bazaar were trying to fit any type of coat on their children. A mother of a ten year old boy almost bought an extra large woman's blazer for him. The boy heard me saying that it was a women's blazer. He refused to keep it on. That made his mom super sad. I promised her that we will be back with winter supplies later."
Weather has already been cold in many states. We ask our communities across the county to organize winter clothes drive to homeless and needy within their communities. We are talking about several thousands of kids in our neighborhoods who won't have something appropriate to wear this season. The season has already been cold. See if you could get a boot, a coat and proper sized gloves to as many kids as possible this year.
MY Project USA will be distributing our supplies on the east and westsides of Columbus. You can put your donations in our donation collection boxes across the city and in Dayton.
Please share with your friends. You can also send your donations to support our drive. May Allah SWT make it a warm winter for all.
MY Deah's Store New Drop Off Locations & Winter Hours
10 Locations In Columbus & 2 Locations in Dayton To Drop Off Donations - Truck Pick Up Available For Large Donations
You can now drop off your donations of new and gently used clothes, shoes books, toys and other small non-breakable items in a donation box near you. These location Include:
Noor Islamic Cultural Center -5001 Wilcox Rd. Dublin 43016 Masjid Omar Ibn El-Khattab - 580 Riverview Dr, Columbus, OH 43202 Masjid Nimrah - 4501 Refugee Rd, Columbus, OH 43232 MAS Youth Center - 4615 Northtowne Blvd, Columbus, OH. 43229 Turkish American Society of Ohio (TASO) - 2885 W Dublin Granville Rd, Columbus, OH 43235 Ahlul Bayt Society - 2580 W Dublin Granville Rd, Columbus, OH 43235 The First Congregational Church - 444 E Broad St, Columbus, OH 43215 Quick & Easy Mart -4197 Cleveland Ave. Columbus MY Deah's Store - 3036 Sullivant Ave., Columbus, OH 43204 - During Business Hours Only MY Deah's Warehouse - 4004 Fondorf Dr. Columbus, OH 43228 Dayton Mercy Society - 2277 Maue Rd, Miamisburg, OH 45342 Osman Gazi Mosque - 1508 Valley St, Dayton, OH 45404
We are looking for more locations. If interested in helping us or have any other question, please contact us at info@myprojectusa.org.
MY DEAH'S WINTER HOURS (NOV.EMBER - FEBRUARY)
MWF 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Ohio Legislators Pay Tribute To MY Project USA Executive Director, Zerqa Abid
State Representative Adam Miller & Allison Russo Co-Sponsored The Resolution
Thanks to Representative Adam Miller and Representative Allison Russo for their sponsorship of this prestigious honor from The Ohio House of Representatives. I am truly humbled and grateful for their thoughtfulness and support and am looking forward to work with them and other House Representatives to protect and empower our youth and families across Ohio for years to come, inshaAllah (God willing). - Zerqa Abid, Nov. 3, 2019.
Zerqa Abid named Dispatch Media Group’s Everyday Hero for 2019
Founder of MY Project USA to serve immigrant Hilltop residents honored for service to the community
Posted Oct 1, 2019 at 3:26 PM, By Suzanne Goldsmith, Senior Editor, Columbus Monthly.
Zerqa Abid accepts congratulations from (from left) Stephen White of COSI, Dan Sharpe of the Columbus Foundation, and Ray Paprocki of the Dispatch Media Group as she was named the 2019 Everyday Hero Tuesday, October 1, 2019. 25 volunteers from Central Ohio were honored during a luncheon program at COSI, a science museum in downtown Columbus. (Columbus Dispatch photo by Doral Chenoweth III)
Dispatch Magazine Highlights Zerqa Abid's Work In Their Magazine And On Their YouTube Channel
"Zerqa Abid: A Hilliard resident engages young people in a struggling Hilltop housing complex"
A Video By The Dispatch Media Group Reporters
"Abid was impelled to take action locally by 2013 newspaper coverage of an alleged Somali human trafficking ring said to be forcing Muslim girls into prostitution in several U.S. cities, including Columbus. “I’m a mother of three daughters,” she said. “I could not sleep on this idea that somebody’s daughter would be sold several times a day because maybe my sister was not able to help her.”
“I have gotten help from my friends,” she added. “We get help from friends and cousins and extended family. I wanted to be that help for my brothers and sisters in my refugee community.”
Believing that poverty and lack of opportunity set the stage for social ills like gangs, prostitution, drugs and even radicalization, Abid planned an ambitious effort to engage young people on the Hilltop. She called her nonprofit MY Project USA, with MY representing Muslim Youth.
Abid drew criticism from a few Somali Muslim religious leaders by speaking out about domestic violence and sex trafficking, although she is careful to point out that she believes these are cultural and family issues, not religious ones, and that she has received tremendous community support in addition to criticism. Her goal is to combat Islamophobia, not increase it."
