Small Business Owner.
Non-Profit Leader.
Women’s Rights Advocate.
Zerqa Abid’s Awards.
Zerqa Abid’s Story.
Zerqa Abid is a small business owner, an award-winning non-profit leader, and an internationally recognized women’s rights advocate. An Ohioan by choice,Zerqa and her husband started several successful small businesses before Zerqa repurposed her life to protect and empower Ohio youths and families against human trafficking, drugs and gangs/gun violence. In 2014, Zerqa founded her non-profit in her kitchen, grew its staff to over 50, and today has served nearly 250,000 Ohioans and has received national awards from organizations like the AARP. Zerqa is running for Congress to put a real public servant, not another career politician, in charge.
Parents & Family
Zerqa has been a trailblazer all her life. Born to middle-class, well educated parents in Pakistan in December, 1968, Zerqa was raised as a leader from a very young age. Her mother earned a Masters degree in Language & Arts from the University of Punjab in 1965 when it was very unusual for Pakistani women to go for higher education. Her father, a grandnephew of world renowned Islamic scholar, Syed Suleiman Nadvi, was a CPA by profession. Both parents worked hard to provide the best education and enriching environment to their children.
A Leader in Making
They raised a strong girl in Zerqa who would not be intimidated by male dominance in a patriarchal community. With their careful, progressive nurturing, she became a public speaker at the age of eight and the best debater of the metropolitan city of Karachi at the age of 12. She maintained this honor for the next three years until she graduated from the Secondary School Board of Karachi.
Marriage, Green Card, and Family Life
In 1989, she got married to Zafar, a self-made, foreign student attending the Florida International University. It took six long years for them to get Zerqa’s green card. In the meantime, she had two children and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Karachi.
She finally arrived in America in 1995 with her two children, reuniting with Zafar in Raleigh, NC. With her husband’s support, she returned to college and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Department of Communications at the NC State University with honors & distinction in 2000.
Fast Forward 28 years, Zerqa is happily married with 3 daughters and 3 grandchildren. She lives with her husband of 34 years in Grove City, Ohio.
A Hilliard PTO Leader & Advisor
Zerqa is a strong believer in public education and has invested in the Hilliard, Columbus and South Western School Districts through her services.
As a Hillard parent in the early 2010s, she served as the treasurer of Tharp Sixth Grade School PTO, and Vice President and President of the Hilliard Weaver Middle school PTO in the Hilliard City School District. She also served on the Hilliard Education Advisory Committee per the invitation of then superintendent Dr. John Marschhausen.
As a nonprofit leader and community advocate, Zerqa has been working with the Columbus City Schools District and the Southwestern City Schools District since 2014. Through her organization, she has successfully brought more than 2 million dollars worth of enrichment programs to various schools in both districts. The graduation rates in schools and the communities she works with have risen significantly.
A Greater Hilltop Area Commissioner
Zerqa served as a commissioner on the Greater Hilltop Area Commission from 2017 to 2021. During this time she served as the Co-Chair of the Human Resources Committee and she chaired the Public Safety Committee. In August 2021, she conducted surveys of the residents and based on their responses, organized the first Trash Summit to call upon the City of Columbus to take actions that would help address the violence and trash situation in the Hilltop area. As a result of her efforts, the Division of Refuse of City of Columbus allocated more money to address the trash issues in the area and followed the recommendation made by the residents.
A Youth Social Justice Advocate
In December 2021, to address the issue of youth gang violence, Zerqa organized several organizations to launch the Hilltop Youth Social Justice Collaborative.
Under this initiative, she has been advocating for more investment in recreation spaces and programs for the youth and families in the Hilltop area. Through her organization, MY Project USA, she has now taken a next step toward building the Issa Jeylani Memorial Recreation Center on the west side, named after the Hilltop Tigers soccer champion killed in 2022 while playing soccer.
Women & Human Rights
Although her journey as a women and human rights advocate started back in Pakistan, she took it to the next level in the US. In 2000, the College of Humanities of NCSU selected her to represent as a student leader at the annual leadership training of young women leaders in Washington DC by the National Organization of Women, NOW. That’s when she entered the chamber of Congress for the first time.
Since then, she has gone to Congress and Ohio Statehouse several times advocating for human rights, women rights, immigrant and refugee issues, prevention of gun violence, fair trade policies, affordable housing, job development, safe neighborhoods, anti discrimination, anti Islamophobia and more. In the last three decades, she has organized communities and contributed financially to support the victims of rape, sexual and domestic violence in the US and war zones around the world.
National & International Trade Experienced CEO
Zerqa is an incredible professional with extensive experience working with multiple industries in the US and overseas. She has successfully started multiple businesses and delivered great projects over the years.
She started her professional career at NBC 17 News in Raleigh, NC, worked as TV Producer/Director at the Raleigh Community TV Studio, and worked as the first General Manager of The City Channel of the ARY Digital Network in Pakistan. In 2004, she started her own IT & media company and organized international expos at the Expo Center Karachi. Her events broke previous records and raised the bar very high for the expo industry in Pakistan.
Her newest venture, the nonprofit, MY Project USA, is a great testimony of her business sense. She built it into a multi-million-dollar organization in less than 9 years. She was nominated for the 2023 Smart 50 Awards, which recognizes executives who lead the smartest organizations in Central Ohio.
