Meet Farzana Moshi: CDPHP Scholar and MPH Student

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 2, 2022) - Farzana Moshi, originally from Hudson, New York, is completing a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Social Behavior and Community Health with a Certificate in Maternal and Child Health here at UAlbany. With support from the CDPHP Scholars Program, she’s gaining public health knowledge in critical areas to help people— specifically those who identify as women— to lead empowered and healthy lives.

Moshi is co-founder of Jaago Hudson, a nonprofit supporting victims and survivors of sexual abuse and violence in the South Asian diaspora. The organization provides survivor-led restorative justice circles, shares personal stories, empowers those who have suffered from a history of abuse, assault, or violence, provides educational resources, and more.

“This started from a protest we led in Hudson to bring justice to myself and other survivors against my abuser. We marched to his house, I shared my story, and it made national and international news,” Moshi says. “This work is very important to me because it embodies my life, the people I grew up with, and the community that didn’t acknowledge it. Being a survivor shaped me into the person I am today, and it lies within me to do everything in my power to bring awareness, prevention, and intervention to sexual abuse, sexual violence, and trauma so no person ever feels that they have to be silenced again.”

But Moshi knows her reach will stretch far beyond the Capital Region and her hometown. Long-term, her goal is to expand Jaago Hudson into an international organization that provides housing, educational and health-related resources, sexual violence support groups, and healing services for women and children.

“I have a vision that Jaago can create these types of workplaces or safe houses in places all over the world where women and children are neglected,” Moshi says. “When looking at the news or new social justice movements that are going on every day, I feel so much emotion and power through the screen. It gives me the drive to want to help those people, create prevention and intervention programs for them, and especially create services to assist women and children who have no support.”

Moshi notes that in addition to the academic component of the MPH, it is rewarding for her to be able to make connections to others who share interests and goals similar to her own. This has helped her to be able to grow as a public health advocate, gaining insight and support from others as she works towards her goals.

“And being a CDPHP Scholar helped me exponentially with my tuition,” Moshi says. “I am forever grateful and thankful for the opportunity to have received this award.”