Leadership.

Leadership is one’s ability to mobilize resources toward societal transformation. As a leader, I have led
several groups towards achieving set goals for the betterment of my community.Between January 2014
and July 2017, I was a teacher at Christ Secondary School, and was serving as the youth Chairperson in
my church parish. My role as a teacher was to teach Chemistry and Biology, while also serving as a Head
of Guidance and Counselling Department and the Teachers' Welfare Committee. It was when cases of
teenage pregnancies, drug abuse and school dropout were on rise. I took the lead to organize guidance
and counselling sessions every week and also invited different external counselors who conducted one-
on-one sessions for the students. These interventions drastically reduced cases of early pregnancies,
drug abuse and truancy, and in turn, reduced school dropout cases. In addition, as youth leader I used to
come upwith strategies to keep the youths occupied during their free time on weekends and school
holidays as a way of preventing divergent behaviors. I took the lead to reach out to the parish leaders in
the diocese to organize inter-parish music, drama and ball competitions which would attract more
youths and constructively unite them. In order to facilitate the activities, I initiated a sheep rearing
project for youths in my parish. I approached the government youth office in my district who assisted us
to register St. Daniel Fountain Youths, and applied for the government youth enterprise fund. We used
the money to purchase five sheep which upon multiplication we would sell and fund youth activities.
The project was a relief for parents not to struggle funding youth activities, and it is still operational. As a
social worker at The Kobo Trust, I am charged with beneficiary career and life mentorship, timely
communication to sponsors, management of income-generating projects and coordinating a gender
program.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do
it”. --- Dwight D. EisenhowerComing from Jordanian-Palestinian Family made me learn about
Eisenhower’s definition of leadership throughout my personal, academic and professional life. External
political and economic forces drove my father’s Palestinian family to move to Jordan, Lebanon then to
settle in Syria. In 2015, the carpet-bombing of Aleppo forced me to leave for Turkey without a firm grasp
on my future. From the Voluntary experience I gained from working in the Red-Crescent and University
Degree in Economics I have worked as a humanitarian for the UN trying to assist crisis-affected
communities with economic empowerment and development. I have used my leadership skills to assist
others who believe in recovery and resilience to commit to the same humanitarian cause. At UN-IOM
Turkey, I helped with the coordination and management of the first pilot project for economic recovery
in the northern Syria. Using my communication and administrative skills, I monitor and oversee the
implementation of IOM’s programs in Turkey through our partners remotely on daily basis. my
leadership skills have been crystalized through the effective management of this project by allowing the
partner flexibility to implement the activities and getting feedbacks on the results. I find that the strong
leadership come from clear communication of the task and the ability to give freedom and motivate
others to thrive in their implementation of the objective.Moreover, I have used my communication and
coordination skills to initiate change in the workplace. When the Turkish lira dropped down significantly
against US dollar and inflation rose 40%, UN local-staff were suddenly unable to support themselves. I
led discussions with colleagues suggesting writing a letter to the management expressing our needs and
the aim for a change in our salaries. By listening, gaining their trust and acknowledging their fear, I
convinced many local staff members to sign a letter to senior management. the letter led to a meeting
with senior management and to officially coordinate this issue with other UN agencies in Turkey which
later required establishing Staff Association Committee that I was elected to lead and represent more
than 150 staff in south of Turkey.The Chevening scholarship will give me an opportunity to receive
education which will provide me with the technical expertise and the network I will need when I return
to create the social change in terms of development and economic recovery not only at the community
level but also in terms policy implantation. This is a highly needed change not only for the current Syrian
Refugee crisis but also in the whole Middle East