Ghuraba Initiative connects people facing medical bills, tuition fees, and other hard-to-plan-for costs with the support they need — one story at a time. Based in Illinois, sending support directly to families in Hyderabad, India.
"So give glad tidings to the strangers." A saying of the Prophet ﷺ — the root of our name
These are the people we're currently raising support for. Each story is different — a surgery, a semester, a diagnosis — but the ask is the same: help closing a gap that shouldn't exist. Big categories hide people, so we'd rather raise support for Hussain's wound than "medical relief" in the abstract.
A non-healing leg ulcer following a motorcycle accident, needing ongoing wound care and treatment his family can't afford on their own.
Status: fundraising open
Support Hussain's story →Living with kidney stones and glaucoma at once, Malika is managing two chronic conditions that both require continuous, costly treatment.
Status: fundraising open
Support Malika's story →After losing both parents, Shakeel was left with their hospital bills — a financial burden on top of a loss no one should have to carry alone.
Status: fundraising open
Support Shakeel's story →Razia is facing kidney stones alongside uterine issues, two conditions that together mean mounting appointments, tests, and treatment costs.
Status: fundraising open
Support Razia's story →We don't specialize in one kind of hardship. We specialize in showing up for whatever kind shows up.
Surgeries, treatments, and care that fall outside what insurance or public health systems will cover.
Covering the gap between a scholarship and the real cost of school, so an acceptance letter isn't the end of the story.
Including dermatologic conditions in skin of color, which standard clinics and training too often miss or diagnose late.
Ghuraba Initiative didn't start with us.
Our great-grandmother, Saleem Ashraf, spent her life doing what we're now trying to continue. She was a well-known philanthropist in Hyderabad, closely tied to Anees ul Ghuraba — an orphanage founded in 1921 whose name means "companion to the strangers." She distributed donations and organized fundraising events regularly, covering medical costs, distributing clothing, and raising money for people who had none.
She was known as much for her activism as her generosity — spending her life bridging the class divide, and showing up in the moments most people looked away from. She is buried in Jannat al-Baqi, in Medinah.
Ghuraba Initiative takes its name from her orphanage, and from the same saying of the Prophet ﷺ that gave the orphanage its own. We're trying to carry a small part of her work forward — one story, one family, at a time.
Donate to salam@ghurabainitiative.org naming the specific story in the "Memo" section, or specify "General."
We're an early-stage nonprofit based in Illinois, sending support directly to families in Hyderabad. Here's where we could use you.
Give directly toward one of the cases above, or toward wherever the need is greatest.
Get in touch →Know someone facing a medical, education, or care-related cost they can't cover? Tell us their story.
Submit a case →Clinics, schools, and community organizations — let's build something together.
Start a conversation →Our nonprofit registration is currently in progress, so we're not yet able to accept tax-deductible donations. Until then, the most useful thing you can give us is time — or a story worth telling.
Based in Illinois, USA — reach out and we'll get back to you.