Haque has passion for helping others

Published 10:01 am Friday, July 31, 2015

GIVING BACK: Shaheena Haque teaches the AARP Driver Saftey course at the Vicksburg Senior Center.

For two years, Shaheena Haque has been volunteering at the Vicksburg Senior Center. Since 2013, she has been teaching the AARP Driver Safety course, which offers seniors updated driving skills, current rules of the road and information about normal age-related physical changes, all of which will help them to qualify for insurance discounts.

“I first got involved after I took a class,” Haque said.

Now she teaches the course, at the Senior Center four to five times a year and also teaches classes in Clinton and Jackson.

Along with teaching the driver safety course, Haque is also an AARP car-fit technologist, someone who can help older adults check to see how well their vehicle fits them, she said.

As a former executive director of the Vicksburg Child and Parent Center, Haque has also served on the board for The Salvation Army of Vicksburg and she volunteers with Camellia Healthcare in their hospice program.

Haque says she also spends her days writing letters to heads of states, where she advocates for women’s rights and human rights.

“I quit my job in 2007, and I am very passionate about causes, and there were many opportunities to get involved, and I felt like I could help out,” she said.

Currently, she is working on starting an Amnesty International chapter in Vicksburg, she said.

Haque grew up in India and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

“We were financially well off before we moved here from Iran,” she said, but she and her husband, Amin, who is a physicist and professor at Alcorn State University, decided they wanted to move to a country where their children could have freedoms and rights.

“We are so lucky to be here,” she said, and likened becoming a U.S. citizen to a marriage.

“This was not an arranged marriage, this was a love marriage,” she said.

Haque said she also dedicates time to an Indian senior network in Jackson, which includes providing transportation for some of the elderly, and once a month she organizes a music program for the group.

Haque has four children and two grandchildren, and when she is not volunteering her time, she said she likes to paint and read.

About Terri Cowart Frazier

Terri Frazier was born in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Vicksburg. She is a part-time reporter at The Vicksburg Post and is the editor of the Vicksburg Living Magazine, which has been awarded First Place by the Mississippi Press Association. She has also been the recipient of a First Place award in the MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest’s editorial division for the “Best Feature Story.”

Terri graduated from Warren Central High School and Mississippi State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations.

Prior to coming to work at The Post a little more than 10 years ago, she did some freelancing at the Jackson Free Press. But for most of her life, she enjoyed being a full-time stay at home mom.

Terri is a member of the Crawford Street United Methodist Church. She is a lifetime member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary and is a past member of the Sampler Antique Club and Town and Country Garden Club. She is married to Dr. Walter Frazier.

“From staying informed with local governmental issues to hearing the stories of its people, a hometown newspaper is vital to a community. I have felt privileged to be part of a dedicated team at The Post throughout my tenure and hope that with theirs and with local support, I will be able to continue to grow and hone in on my skills as I help share the stories in Vicksburg. When asked what I like most about my job, my answer is always ‘the people.’

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