A Story of Strength, Motherhood, and Hope
This Mother’s Day, meet “Z” as we honor the strength, love, and sacrifices of mothers everywhere. We are especially grateful to our donors who help make new beginnings possible for young moms facing homelessness. Because of your support, programs like Raphael’s Life House—Covenant House New Jersey’s specialized home for pregnant and parenting young women and their babies—exist as places of safety, dignity, and hope. Raphael’s Life House provides young mothers ages 18–21 with private living space, parenting and life-skills support, and the time they need to prepare for independent living, so they and their children can thrive.
Zaniyah’s story is a powerful reflection of what that support makes possible: at just 19 years old, nine months pregnant, and working toward stability while attending college, Zaniyah, better known as Z, represents the resilience of young mothers and the life-changing impact of compassionate, donor-powered care. Through Covenant House New Jersey, and because of you, mothers like Z are not facing motherhood alone—they are building a safer, brighter future for themselves and their children.
Here’s Z’s story in her own words:
My name is Zaniyah, but most people know me as “Z.” I am 19 years old, nine months pregnant with a baby girl, and preparing to be induced on May 18th due to a high-risk pregnancy. While this moment should feel like a simple countdown to new life, it carries the weight of everything I’ve had to overcome just to get here. Before I ever entered the Covenant House system, my life was already shaped by difficult circumstances at home.
At 17 years old, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life: I spoke up and opened cases against my mother and her boyfriend. One case involved child abuse and neglect, and the other involved sexual assault and harassment. That moment forced me to grow up quickly and stand on my own in ways I never expected. It was painful, but it was also the beginning of me choosing myself, my safety, and my future. For almost two years, I have been without a stable home. I’ve moved through three different Covenant House locations, each one marking a different chapter of survival, growth, and learning. I started at the Youth Engagement Center in Newark, New Jersey, where I stayed for about seven months. That was a time in my life where everything felt uncertain, and I was trying to find my footing in a world that didn’t seem built for me to stand in.
From there, I was transferred to Rights of Passage, also in Newark, where I spent another seven months continuing to navigate instability while holding on to any sense of direction I could find. Now, I am at Raphael’s Life House for Moms and Babies, waiting for an apartment voucher and holding on to hope that stability is finally within reach.
Despite everything, I am also a freshman in college at Kean University, studying communications and journalism with a minor in fine arts. That alone represents something deeper than just education it represents my refusal to let my circumstances dictate my future. There have been days when the weight of everything felt unbearable, when being a student, being pregnant, and being homeless all at once felt like too much for one person to carry. But I carry it anyway, because I know there is something greater on the other side of this struggle. My hopes and dreams are simple, but powerful. I want to stay committed to my studies, graduate, and build a stable career. I want a place to call my own a home where my daughter and I can feel safe, secure, and at peace. More than anything, I want to give her a life better than anything I ever imagined for myself. I want to love her unconditionally, protect her fiercely, and show her that where you start does not determine where you can go.
My time within the Covenant House system has shaped me in ways I never expected. It opened doors for me, but it also opened my eyes. It taught me how to find my voice and use it not just for myself, but for others who feel unseen or unheard. Whether it’s speaking out about how the system sometimes fails young people or bringing attention to issues that need to be addressed, I’ve learned that my voice has power. And even when I feel small, I know my story is not.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that my living situation is the least interesting thing about me. It may be the loudest part of my story right now, but it is not the only part. There is more to me than struggle. There is resilience, ambition, creativity, and strength that people don’t always see at first glance. I’ve learned not to let labels define me, even when others try to place them on me. If there is one thing I want people to understand, it’s this: just because I don’t look like what I’ve been through doesn’t mean I’m not going through it. And just because I am going through it does not mean it defines who I will become. I am not my circumstances. I am not my struggles. I am a young woman with goals, with purpose, and with a future that I am actively fighting for every single day.
My life is still hard. There is no sugarcoating that. But within that hardship, there is also determination an unshakable belief that I will make a way for myself and my baby girl. No matter how difficult the road has been, I am still moving forward. And that, in itself, is proof that I am already becoming everything I once thought was out of reach.
