CALIFORNIA, USA. January 22nd, 2026 – Misbah Trust, a newly launched charitable trust, today announced it is providing emergency scholarships and tailored academic support to underprivileged Shiite students from the Middle East facing financial hardship while pursuing degrees at universities across the United States and Europe. The initiative is designed for students who are already working hard to stay in demanding academic programs but are one unexpected financial shock away from losing their place.
Rather than creating yet another general scholarship, Misbah Trust focuses on the specific pressure points that quietly push students out of university: a sudden tuition shortfall, a missed rent payment, a family emergency back home or the cost of the essentials that keep studying possible. Support can bridge a final semester’s fees, stabilize housing during an exam period, cover the gap when a family’s circumstances in the Middle East change overnight and promised support can no longer arrive or when families who have resettled as refugees or in low-income household’s face expenses they simply cannot absorb. Each case is handled individually, with the goal of making sure a temporary crisis does not permanently close the door on a student’s education.
“Our aim is to reach students before a temporary setback snowballs into a crisis,” said program director Hassan R. “When a motivated student starts cutting back on essentials, skipping opportunities or quietly wondering if they can afford to stay enrolled, that is the moment Misbah Trust steps in with practical support and a clear path forward.”
Misbah Trust’s work is shaped by the reality that many of the students it supports are carrying more than one kind of burden. They are often first-generation university students abroad, managing the expectations of family, the weight of representing a minority community and the everyday challenges of living and studying in unfamiliar environments. When financial stress collides with isolation and uncertainty, even the most capable students can find themselves on the brink of stepping away from their studies. Misbah Trust’s model responds to this by pairing financial support with human connection.
Alongside funding, the organization helps students build relationships with mentors and peers who understand both the academic landscape in the West and the cultural and religious context they come from. This can mean connecting a first-year engineering student with an older professional in the same field or giving a law student a space to think through how their background shapes the kind of work they want to do after graduation through targeted programming. The aim is not to script students’ paths, but to make sure they are not walking them alone.
Students supported by Misbah Trust are enrolled in a wide range of disciplines, from STEM fields to social sciences and the humanities, reflecting the trust’s belief that Shiite youth should be present wherever decisions are made and ideas are shaped. Some are focused on building technical careers that can support their families and communities materially, while others are drawn to policy, advocacy or research that may influence how their communities are seen and treated in the long term. In both cases, the trust looks for young people who combine academic seriousness with a sense of responsibility to something larger than themselves.
The emergency funding initiative has been intentionally kept flexible and responsive. Students who hear about Misbah Trust can reach out, explain their situation in plain language and work with the organization to determine what kind of support would make the most immediate and meaningful difference. This could be a one-time intervention that prevents withdrawal from a program, or a more structured period of support combined with regular check-ins on academic progress and well-being. The process is designed to be dignified and straightforward, recognizing that asking for help is already difficult.
For Misbah Trust, each grant is not just a transaction but a vote of confidence in a young person’s potential to shape their own life and the lives of others. A student who finishes a degree and steps into a stable role gains more than a credential; they gain the ability to mentor younger relatives, support parents and siblings and participate in conversations and institutions that once felt closed off. The organization measures its successes in both graduation rates and the ways students begin to see themselves as capable, needed and part of a wider network that expects them to go further, not fall behind.
ENDS