- 12 Nov 2025
In the heart of Gaza, where dreams are often interrupted by conflict, Safaa Al-Amsi refused to let destruction define her story. A 32-year-old mother of three and a Master’s student in Business Administration, Safaa’s journey is one of extraordinary brave, a reminder that even in the darkest moments, learning can be the light that leads us forward.
“Do You Know the Taste of Success?”
“If you’ve ever tasted success,” Safaa says, “you know it’s not easy, but once you do, you’ll crave it forever.”
Before the war, Safaa was at her best. She was freelancing for one of Riyadh’s top beauty centers, studying for her Master’s, and raising her three children with passion and pride. On her 30th birthday — October 3, 2023 — she made herself a promise:
“I will not waste a single moment of this decade. I will live with purpose and achieve.”
Then, everything changed.
Her home was destroyed. Her university was bombed. Her professional groups went silent.
“I remember seeing the message: You’ve been removed from the WhatsApp groups. That’s when I realized I had lost everything; my home, my work, my studies, and my hope.”
A New Beginning Through Learning
Weeks later, during a short ceasefire, Safaa saw an Instagram story from a friend, an ad for the DigiWork digital marketing course. She wasn’t sure why she applied. “I had no energy, no motivation,” she says. “But something inside me whispered, ‘Try again.’”
The first lecture changed everything.
“I was angry, empty, and tired. But three hours passed without me noticing. For the first time in months, I felt calm. I felt like myself again.”
From that moment, Safaa reorganized her life around her training. She treated every lecture as sacred. Slowly, she felt more focused, more hopeful, more alive. Her children noticed it too.
“I told them, ‘We never stop learning. Don’t give up. Let’s study together.’”
Turning Knowledge Into Opportunity
Then came the real test: creating her freelance profile. Many participants struggled, but Safaa decided to learn everything from scratch. She followed every piece of feedback from her instructor, restructured her Mostaql page, focused on her SEO skills, and uploaded samples of her past work.
She called it her “homework emergency.” She worked day and night to perfect it, and two days later, she received her first project in three years.
“It was a small job, but I accepted it. I wanted to learn, to prove to myself that I could start again.”
Her dedication paid off. Soon, she was hired for a full digital marketing campaign, one that lasted a full week. She handled client negotiations, built strategies, and applied everything she had learned from DigiWork.
And then, even more offers started coming.
“Yesterday, I had to refuse a $300 project because I was fully booked. I can’t believe I’m saying that!”
Building a Future, Not Just a Career
Safaa’s new vision is clear. She’s not just freelancing, she’s investing in herself.
She’s building her own website, writing summaries of the courses she takes, posting educational content on LinkedIn, and planning to launch a YouTube channel to share what she’s learned about digital marketing and entrepreneurship.
“When the war ended, I wasn’t lost anymore,” she says. “I had direction, I had purpose, and I had hope. I’m continuing my studies, and I want to be a role model for my children to show them that success can rise even from the ruins.”
The Power of DigiWork
Safaa’s story is one of many under our #DigiWork project, supported by GIZ, that helps Palestinian youth and women gain digital skills and access real work opportunities online.
By training young people in high-demand digital fields, connecting them with international clients, and supporting the creation of 20 freelance agencies, DigiWork is opening new paths for employment and independence in Palestine.
Through learning and resilience, Safaa turned despair into determination, and found light in the digital world when everything around her went dark.
“DigiWork didn’t just teach me marketing,” she says. “It gave me my life back.”