Today, we will tell you about a Syrian heroine whose story began in Lattakia and spread to the world. We will start with one of her dearest sentences to our hearts as a simple introduction of her: “Dream big, even if your beginning is small, to begin is what matters, just begin.” It’s Laila Deeb.
Leila is the Director of the Software Engineering Department at (ESKO) in Belgium. She works in the field of innovative technical solutions and is the founder of (Syrian Women in Tech); a project that aims to search for female Syrian computer programmers and engineers, with the intention of training them and connecting them to the Belgian and European labor market.
Her story began at a young age with the discovery of her passion for technology in general and programming in particular. She remembers watching a movie starring (Angelina Jolie) playing the role of a programmer, and out of her love for the idea, she began to research more on this matter, and that continued until the end of high school.
Her hard work was capped with enrolling in the Faculty of Informatics Engineering in Syria, but the real challenge for Laila was after graduation; it is the labor market, was confusing for her, as she didn’t know what to do and where to begin.
Laila has a passion for teaching and delivering the information in the best way possible, that is why she chose this field, and began working at the Faculty of Informatics Engineering at Tishreen University, and continued in this field for several years.
For the sake of change; Laila began working and honing her skills in another field, so she worked for a software company in Syria, and she emphasized the importance of this opportunity for her and her career.
Laila’s passion for continuing development and working for larger companies and greater projects led her to the decision to travel and start her career abroad.
Laila says: (Anyone who sets a goal for themselves and determines their path will face many difficulties, and the difficulties that I faced are still engraved in my memory to this moment.)
At first, and despite her many attempts, she was faced with rejection; which caused her some frustration, but her determination was stronger than rejection, so she continued to apply for job opportunities in several companies for a year and a half until she was able to get a job.
Laila shared her experience by saying: (I started preparing my resume to look for job opportunities that fit my skills, and tried a lot with multiple companies, until I succeeded in getting a job interview, and started working with the company remotely until I got the visa and traveled to Belgium).
Despite getting the job, Laila kept on improving herself and learning new skills to be able to work with large companies.
When she arrived in Belgium; she started thinking about her college friends and the students she had taught, and she was looking into how to secure similar job opportunities for all the struggling Syrian women in Syria who have a desire to develop; aiming to change the lives of Syrian girls by providing them with job opportunities that suit their ambitions.
From here, the idea of the (Syrian Women in Tech) project began to take shape and evolve in Laila’s mind until the dream became a reality!
The founding of the (SWIT) project was one of the biggest challenges that Laila faced, as such a project requires a lot of effort and exhaustion, in addition to being exposed to a bunch of difficulties.
Among these difficulties were finding financial support for the project and setting up an integrated team capable of performing many tasks, including planning, implementation, and evaluation, and of course, all of this became easier when she was able to better organize her time.
Laila gave us a number of tips to benefit from her rich experience, and in turn encourage us to achieve our goals; among these tips:
1- Continuity: All roads are full of difficulties, but the most important thing is to start and continue, even if progress is slow, what matters is working towards your goal.
2- Acquaintances: It is always necessary to seek help from people who are more experienced, people we know, friends, or teachers, and this is what Laila learned from the difficulties she went through.
3- Surrounding ourselves with encouraging and supportive people: We must always surround ourselves with people we share the passion and exchange positive energy, as we may often feel defeated and tired, and have doubts about our goals, so we choose a different path, but being with people who are encouraging and supportive gives us impulse and motivation to keep going; be they a professor, friend or social media content creator.
4- Helping others: We must help others; in doing so, we give back to the people who helped us.
Also read: Woman from history- Rana Kabbani
Success has many meanings, and everyone sees success from a different point of view, but there are several factors common to all successful people; which are:
This is the magical recipe to achieve success at any level, and Laila added, “Whenever a dream is achieved, a new dream is born, and whenever we reach a goal, we shift our focus to the next goal. At the moment, I am working on developing my skills in the professional field, while focusing on the (SWIT) project, and collaborating with the team to achieve my first chance of success.”
In conclusion, Laila thanked our initiative (Uplifting Syrian Women) for our interest in sharing her story, as well as thanking each one of us for everything we are doing; since the Syrian society is in dire need of such initiatives that support and help people, especially women, to meet their goals.
She focused on the importance of striving to develop these initiatives with the aim of facilitating access to information and its sources, she also thanked us for all the workshops that we are holding through the initiative, whether they are in the field of programming, English language, or in other fields, as she was certain that these workshops are not only a source of knowledge; but a great source of support and motivation for all beneficiaries.
She ended by saying: (I wish you all the best in your journey to make a positive change, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this initiative).
♀️ Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative aims at sustainable peace building in Syria through targeting women and providing them with free online courses, workshops, discussion sessions and trainings, with a view to achieving the goals of Gender Equality, Quality Education and Decent Work and Economic Growth, which all fall into the interest of society as a whole and serve the purpose of rebuilding it.