Samia appears at the 2018 HL Graduates Symposium Dinner Medal Awards Presentations Kuala Lumpur

“I started my career as a national staff member, as a logistics manager in emergency response working in Mosul, in Iraq. And then I moved to Baghdad as a logistics and procurement manager.

“This job—I’ve been in Jordan now for around 14 months—is one of the biggest that I can demonstrate my leadership in.” says Samia.

Samia’s leap to her current role was made possible in part due to coaching, mentorship, and experience from the Humanitarian Leadership Program.

“The Humanitarian Leadership Program impacted my career and personal life by increasing my confidence. It gave me experience to explore and to do things that I wanted to achieve in my career.

“After graduating from the program, I had a list of recommendations from my mentor and from the faculty within the program itself. Part of that feedback was to extend my skills, and to go out of my comfort zone, and to start exploring international careers.

A practical roadmap for more effective leadership.

“The feedback I received gave me a roadmap to help achieve a dream that I’d previously felt I could not achieve. After doing this program, I believed that I could do it.”

What was the catalyst that helped Samia explore international careers?

It’s the skills, it’s the confidence. The experience will genuinely fuel your passion if you are a real humanitarian and you want to see change.

“You have all of these people who believe in this program: they really gave me the power and enriched and fed my belief that we can create change.

“I will always have the theory learnings I gained from this experience with me, and I’ll continue to transfer the learnings to colleagues that I have in different organisations.

“The interesting part of this program is that it stays alive within my heart; I always refer to it and I always speak about it. And, people refer back to me if they want to learn more about leadership and management.

“It’s difficult, but it’s doable. It’s not a magic stick that will change the face of humanitarianism. But change will happen one day if we all maintain the belief that we can do it.”