Our organization is composed of many board members and volunteers with many faiths. We trust anyone from any faith is of the same worth as their unique contributions to our community are found to be extraordinary.  I personally trust in God as an intangible Holy Spirit, omnipresent and comforting when we ask for help during our trials. I found the concept of the Holy Spirit in many faiths and it is comforting to me that God I believe provides equal attention to anyone regardless of one’s gender, race, and many other differences we see in our community because it is a spirit. Scientists, Philosophers, and historians have discovered throughout human history evidence of miracles that are present and comprehended and independent of laws of physics. Many of these scholars have concluded that there is a divinity that is out there beyond our imagination and perfectly maintains the sustainability of the world. Personally, it is very comforting when I meditate. 

​

Now I want to talk about my life when I came to America.  I personally went through extreme poverty when I was raising my children when I was going to engineering school.  As I was a foreign student there were many financial barriers that I faced and had to manage my budget by choosing a very modest living. What may be an obvious expense for an American citizen, would be a luxury for us. As a foreign student with the responsibility of two children, I had to maintain full-time student status with a part-time job. As you can imagine how difficult it may be as we as foreign students are mostly allowed to work on campus with minimum wage.  It is impossible to maintain basic needs with this type of visa condition. I remember standing in a line for free formula and using a cloth diaper beside many other adjustments.  The challenge was we couldn’t go to school part-time and work full-time even if we had the responsibility to raise children.  There are DHS benefits that are not available to the full extent for foreigners even on an emergency basis which makes it even harder for immigrants in general to survive in a foreign land compared to Americans.  We learn to compromise constantly in different aspects of life to maintain a family.  

​

I was at a domestic violence survivor shelter with my youngest daughter last year.  We stayed there for six months as our life prior to that was unbearable. The shelter team has helped us every step of the way to start our new independent life.  While staying at the shelter, I met many residents there. Those women were of different ages and backgrounds with different family sizes.  I found amazing parents, children, teen moms, young/mid-age adult women, and older adults. They had different types of struggles and needed different attention. These residents came without any belonging and ran away from abuse in the hope of freedom.  Shelter provided our basic needs. However, most shelters are temporary stays with an exit date as there is limited space at the shelter. Some residents don’t have a chance to obtain independence before their exit date and unfortunately are exited with uncertainty.  Unfortunately, some residents under these conditions return back to abuse and they are traumatized however have no choice.

​

When some of us saw this happening, I thought of initiating a non-profit.  I had very little money with us.  I remember going to dollar tree to get a huge container so the residents could donate to make this nonprofit possible where we would build a permanent shelter one day. I remember talking to one resident name Arrssia about the choice of a name for the organization. We came up with the name, “Women United”.  As women in our society face oppression more than anyone, we thought if we as women are united to support this nonprofit, our empathy would make it a reality and our services would be non-discriminatory. Once the name was chosen, then we went to work to create the list of services that were desired by residents and their children. We were in the living room holding these meetings with many children and moms and we were very passionate about our future permanent shelter even when we felt very uncertain. The permanent shelter is crucial as many of the survivors were hurt physically, emotionally, and in many other unspeakable ways and need time in a safe place to recover before facing the community again. 

 

During my stay at the shelter, I spoke to a counselor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She advised me of an online entry-level social work certificate.  I immediately enrolled as I thought it would be very beneficial to be educated in different disciplines of social work practices to build the knowledge foundation for our nonprofit. I graduated.  Our non-profit has attained an EIN, Tax-exempt status, and bank account, and we are registered in the State Of Michigan.

 

I am new to this myself.  I am scheduling meetings with experts from different organizations to understand their available benefits and also finding proposals for policy memos for future change. My understanding is when a survivor is in need of shelter: 

 

American citizens without children have moderate benefits, not enough which sometimes leads them toward homelessness and unsafe living conditions.

 

American citizens with children have little more benefits, however not enough to maintain child custody. Immigrants have the least amount of benefits and face many struggles.

 

These disparities make achieving independence difficult at times.  Therefore, we are hoping to have DHS benefits reform memo [and other memos on this website] implemented for covering the gap where benefits deficiency is seen. Fundraise would cover the remaining.

​

We could change the world by the omission of these disparities. 

​