About Us
Our Story
Limina Community Network is a community-focused nonprofit initiative rooted in dignity, empowerment, inclusion, and practical support. We work to strengthen individuals and families by connecting people with community resources, opportunities, knowledge, and one another.
Our work is especially focused on women and girls, newcomers, refugees, and individuals facing barriers related to safety, housing, financial stability, social isolation, and access to opportunity. We believe lasting community change requires more than short-term assistance: it requires creating pathways toward independence, dignity, participation, and belonging.
Limina was shaped by years of grassroots community involvement, refugee sponsorship and settlement work, direct service, entrepreneurship, and listening to the lived experiences of people who often have nowhere safe to turn.
Name & Meaning
LIMINA is drawn from the Latin word limen, meaning a threshold, doorway, or point of transition. The plural form, limina, evokes thresholds and doorways — places where one chapter ends and another begins. For Limina Community Network, the name represents the belief that meaningful change often begins at a threshold: when a person finds safety, support, opportunity, belonging, or the confidence to take the next step.
The roots of Limina began in 2014, when its founder began volunteering with community organizations and became increasingly involved in supporting newcomers and refugee families. Over the years, this work expanded into refugee sponsorship, settlement support, community engagement, and direct assistance to families navigating a new life in Canada.
Through work as a makeup artist and small-business owner, the founder developed close relationships with women from many backgrounds. Those relationships revealed needs that could not always be addressed through a single service. Clients often came carrying stress, isolation, financial pressure, family challenges, or difficult personal circumstances — and many simply needed a safe person who would listen.
In 2016, while studying community and social-service-related subjects at George Brown College, the founder gained a deeper understanding of structural issues affecting communities — sexism, discrimination, inequality, social exclusion, and the ways systems can compound vulnerability. This experience strengthened a commitment to community work that addresses root causes rather than only symptoms.
The work became increasingly focused on women’s safety, dignity, economic participation, and access to opportunity. The founder witnessed how domestic violence, financial dependence, housing insecurity, isolation, and other barriers can limit a person’s ability to leave unsafe circumstances and rebuild an independent life.
The need became particularly visible among newcomer and refugee women, including Afghan women arriving in Canada after the escalating crisis in Afghanistan. The founder felt a deep personal connection to these experiences and recognized the importance of building a community where people could find practical support, trusted connections, and a sense of belonging.
In August 2025, that commitment took a new form through the creation of a grassroots community network. Beginning with a women-centered WhatsApp community and monthly gatherings, the initiative created spaces where women could connect, speak, share experiences, promote their work, discover opportunities, and support one another.
The network has since grown into a broader community movement. Through events, one-to-one guidance, business support, community connections, and volunteer-led initiatives, Limina has sought to turn isolation into connection and uncertainty into opportunity.
Why This Work Matters
Many social challenges are interconnected. Housing insecurity can intensify financial stress. Financial dependence can make leaving an unsafe relationship more difficult. Isolation can deepen emotional distress. Barriers to employment can limit independence. Newcomers may face language, cultural, social, and institutional barriers simultaneously.
Limina seeks to respond to these realities at the community level by connecting people to practical support and opportunities before challenges become even more difficult to overcome.
Our belief is simple: people deserve more than survival. They deserve the opportunity to rebuild, participate, earn, belong, and live with dignity.
Mission
Limina Community Network exists to empower individuals and strengthen communities by creating pathways to safety, dignity, economic opportunity, housing stability, connection, and belonging.
Our primary focus is women and girls, newcomers, refugees, survivors of domestic and intimate-partner violence, survivors of sexual violence, and individuals experiencing financial, housing, or social barriers. We provide practical support, community connections, information, referrals, education, and opportunities that help people move toward greater independence and stability.
We believe that when people have access to safety, stable housing, economic opportunity, meaningful connection, and the knowledge to navigate available resources, they are better positioned to rebuild their lives and contribute to stronger communities.
Vision
We envision communities where every person can live with safety, dignity, freedom, and a genuine sense of belonging — regardless of gender, background, immigration history, economic circumstances, or the barriers they have faced.
We envision a future in which women and girls have the freedom and opportunity to build independent lives; newcomers and refugees are welcomed with dignity; survivors are supported rather than silenced; and community members have access to the housing, resources, relationships, and opportunities they need to thrive.
We seek a future where community support is not limited to crisis response, but becomes a bridge to long-term stability, participation, and empowerment.
Our Community Philosophy
Community is not simply a place. It is a relationship.
We believe communities become stronger when people are seen, heard, respected, and given meaningful opportunities to contribute. Every person carries knowledge, experience, skills, and potential. Limina seeks to create spaces where those strengths can be recognized and connected.
We do not define people by the challenges they have experienced. We believe in seeing the person beyond the crisis — and helping create the conditions in which that person can move forward.
Limina was born from years of listening to people who needed more than a temporary solution. It grew from conversations with women who needed a safe place to speak, newcomers trying to rebuild their lives, families facing financial pressure, and people who had skills and dreams but lacked the opportunity or support to turn them into something sustainable.
I have learned that sometimes the most important thing we can offer another person is not simply an answer. It is a door — a connection, an opportunity, a safe space, a person who listens, or the confidence to take the next step. That is the meaning behind Limina. A threshold is the point between where we have been and where we may go next. I want Limina to help people reach that threshold — and to make sure they do not have to cross it alone.
Freshta Zamani — Founder & President
Our Team
Freshta Zamani
Founder & President
Freshta brings a background in community engagement, refugee sponsorship and settlement support, entrepreneurship, and grassroots community development. Born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan, she immigrated to Canada in 2007 as a teenager and young mother.
She graduated from George Brown College in 2016 (Social Studies) and is currently pursuing a dual major in Psychology and Sociology in Ontario. Active in community work since 2014, she has supported newcomers, refugee families, women, and people facing social and economic barriers — work that led her to found Limina Community Network in 2025.
Razieh Dinarvand
Vice President
Razieh is a licensed Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) practicing through Oracle Legal Services Professional Corporation. She joined Oracle Legal Services in 2014 working on refugee matters and immigration appeals, and has since taken on extensive pro bono immigration work for people facing financial hardship, especially newcomers and the Iranian community.
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