The Journey to Studying Abroad
Yasmin Al Ghalayini is 24-years-old, married and from Gaza City. She graduated from the Islamic University in Gaza (IUG) in 2010 majoring in accounting, achieving an outstanding 89.7% cumulative mark.
Due to her high score, she was given a one-year contract to work with UNRWA, after which she was able to move to an NGO, where she found work as an accountant.
Speaking of her employment experiences Yasmin said, “It has never been my ambition to be an accountant, I felt so tied up with regular work and no creativity, I was dealing with poor numbers without any relation to financial analysis and programming visions. My husband is passionate about e-business and commerce, and we started talking about the possibilities of expanding the market online. So I began to build contracts with international companies through websites designed to give freelancer work opportunities in accounting as well admin support and survey analysis. Soon, I had a highly ranked profile on these freelancer sites and all the work was from home! I feel I am entering a new domain of business.”
Yasmin added, “This was a very creative approach to overcome unemployment and the few opportunities available in Gaza, making me around $300 a month, yet I am ambitious and I wanted to learn more. So, I applied to Al Fakhoora’s International Master’s Scholarship in which there was a high flexibility for creativity; it was great that we were not bound to apply for specific course as with other scholarships”.
Yasmin applied for, and was awarded an Al Fakhoora scholarship based on her merit and vision to study Management and Finance in Birmingham City.
Yasmin has now finished two semesters, having received a distinction, and is currently working on her thesis. “The courses in the University were excellent and very challenging and it allowed me to pursue a change in career from being an accountant to a financial manager. What we need in Gaza and what I want personally to pursue are less about dealing with calculations and more about critical financial analysis.”
Yasmin added, “My vision is to be an entrepreneur and lead my own business. I want to build a dynamic learning online freelancing academy that enables people to learn necessary skills that are marketable in an online world. In the future, we will aim to have a cadre of young people who can work remotely, which can help reduce unemployment in Gaza by overcoming the blockade. I’m currently exploring entrepreneurship finance, which will be the focus of my dissertation, related to crowd-funding as a source of finance for entrepreneurs and I think this will open up a massive window for young people in Gaza.”
