Female Heroes – Seba’s Path to Success

My name is Seba Outo and I am a proud member of GOAL’s Human Resources team in Syria.

I am 27 and I am the oldest member of my family. All of us – my brother and my sisters – have our dreams and aspirations, but I will tell you about mine.

After completing school and university, I studied at the Department of Programming at the Computer Engineering Institute in my country, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in my early twenties. It was a wonderful achievement, but I did not stop at this point. I had great dreams that I wanted to realise.

I began to plan my future by setting goals that I wanted to achieve. I decided that after completing my studies, I would set myself a new challenge and join the world of management. I began studying Business Administration at Aleppo University, while also working to cover the costs of my study.

However, one day my dreams were cut short in an instant. War started in my country, and it prevented me from completing my studies in 2013. Suddenly, my father lost his job, my dreams lay in tatters, and our situation worsened.

After a few months of uncertainty, I heard about a humanitarian organisation called GOAL, and that they needed new employees. I started to research GOAL, including where they worked and how they existed to help the poorest and most vulnerable in our world.

Although there were a lot of personal difficulties I faced because of the war, I did not give up on my dreams and they were renewed once I started working with GOAL as a Human Resources Assistant.

Throughout my life, I have always had big ambitions and tried to develop myself and my skills. Although the road to success was long (and I am still very young), today I am now the Head of the Human Resources Department at GOAL in Syria.

I am proud of what I have achieved and for not allowing the difficulties of war (or a society that is not used to having a woman be in a powerful position) to stop my dreams. I am proud to be a female running the recruitment process and working at management level in an international organisation.

I am lucky to have benefited from following this path, and I am happy because I am able to support my family when they need anything. Unfortunately, there are thousands of young Syrian men and women who are living in war zones, and the war has stolen their dreams, their homes, their family members and all they have known.

After seven years of war and destruction, our situation in Syria is worsening, and the suffering of the Syrian people is increasing. We do not know when the war is going to end. We are living in an ugly world which is full of fear and obstacles. Our biggest dream now is peace. We have the right to live safely just like everyone else.

The current conflict and the changing political climate is severely affecting the Syrian people, especially our young. At times, it feels like the world is fighting against us. It has become difficult to access basic items like bread and water. The pressure on humanitarian organisations to help those in need has increased, especially in GOAL’s operational area of Idlib in the north, which has become the only refuge left for Syrian refugees.

But we still hope that the international community will not accept the crimes that have been committed against us. We still hope that a time will come when we can build Syria up again, brick by brick, and that we will regain our rights to life, education and peace.

I am determined to keep working hard, and so I know that I will achieve my dreams. I can see my future clearly as a successful Syrian woman who is helping to rebuild her country. I am confident that what is happening now in Syria will not only build our dreams and resilience as Syrians, but increase our determination to build a greater Syria for all.