Mona Megahed helped establish Women Behind the Wheel through the Atlanta-area nonprofit Ethaar. Associated Press reporting in 2024 described 14 hours of free driver education for mostly refugee and immigrant women, with instructor Nancy Gobran teaching in Stone Mountain.
A practical route to greater independence
Learning to drive can change how someone reaches appointments, education and work. The documented program addresses that skill directly. The reporting records a particular stage in its operation; it does not establish present-day places, enrollment or eligibility. Follow the original organization for those details.
Sapelo: a manuscript, not a plantation diary
Bilali Mohammed lived under enslavement on Sapelo Island and left an Arabic manuscript now held by the University of Georgia’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The New Georgia Encyclopedia identifies thirteen surviving pages. Although the document has often been called a diary, scholars identified it as an Islamic religious text.
That correction changes the questions a reader can ask. It is evidence of learning and religious knowledge preserved under enslavement, rather than a daily record of plantation activities. Ink bleeding through the paper and missing material also limit what can be recovered from it.
The encyclopedia connects Bilali’s family history to descendants including the Sapelo author and cultural advocate Cornelia Bailey. Her relationship to that history belongs beside the library record, while remaining a different kind of evidence.
Two settings, with different kinds of evidence
The driving story comes through contemporary reporting about people learning a practical skill. The Sapelo story brings together a physical manuscript, historical scholarship and family memory. Neither needs to be turned into a generic account of resilience: the instructor, the lesson and the surviving pages make their significance concrete.
Keep their geography distinct as well. Metro Atlanta and the Georgia coast are different settings. The photographs accompanying the historical article do not show the driving program. AP’s pictures remain with their publisher because republication rights have not been established.
Continue in Atlanta
The Atlanta guide provides a wider route through community institutions. The Future Foundation profile offers a separate story of youth development. Follow the subject that interests you rather than treating the state page as a checklist of everyone who matters.
Follow the story
Explore the original reporting and organizational records:
Selected local stories, not a complete account of the state. Events and figures refer to the periods stated above. Check directly with organizations for current services.
