Dear person reading this, let me introduce myself! My name is Afiya Shafiq, 25 years old, born and raised in the eldest (and most beautiful) city of the Netherlands, Nijmegen.
In my city I’ve done a lot of good work out of myself. For instance, I gave away a lot of free stuff to women/(single) mothers who can’t permit to shop because of a (very) low budget. I still often give away free things. Also for kids. I also have done a lot around christmas (giving away free stuff like I mentioned earlier). I also wrote a lot of postcards for the lonely elderly people in my neighbourhood. Very cute and joyful cards for christmas/the new year. With an invitation to grab a coffee/tea or just go for a walk together. Right now I’m the city ambassador for Free A Girl in Nijmegen. I also am a buddy for Buddy To Buddy which creates an opportunity to match refugees/migrants with Dutch people. You can do activities together, enjoy life and create a true connection/friendship. And the list goes on because I’m also a chatter buddy for Language is the Foundation/Foundation it starts with language where you get to talk weekly with a “chatter buddy” who is a refugee/migrant. You talk with them and really make them feel seen and heard.
For me the most important thing is to enjoy life, live life to the fullest but also give back. Give back to people who have less to you. Or even more. It doesn’t matter. We can always learn new things from other people and we can also teach others new things. Why did I decide to reach out to you? Well that’s because I thought “Well. Maybe this sounds interesting to anyone reading this.” If you took the time to genuinely read this: a huge thanks and a big hug from me. I hope to make an impact and become a symbol in the future. I want to become an example. But also a very well-known philanthropist, creator, author and whatever not. Hopefully you found this interesting enough to write an article about and/or interview me. You can google me and find all the nice Dutch articles written about me. But I’d love to go international. I want to do many more projects in the future and expand my horizon.
I hope to hear from you!
Kind regards,
Afiya Shafiq (25)
Nijmegen
The Netherlands