From: Palestine
Graduated: 2001
University: SOAS
Course: MSc Development Studies
Majida graduated in 2001 from SOAS with an MA in Development Studies. Several months after returning to Palestine, she was offered a job at Birzeit University where she worked as a Project Manager with the European Commission’s Human Rights Programme.
This role involved overseeing all implementation aspects of six different NGOs plus the project’s Secretariat at the university. Majida also worked as a senior Civic Engagement Specialist at the Cooperative Housing Foundation, an American Relief and Humanitarian Organization in Palestine, and with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) as a project advisor for the Local Councils and Civil Society Development Program.
She was the first woman to achieve such a high position in the GTZ Palestine office. Majida went on to work with the Community Livelihoods Project (CLP) in Sana’a, Yemen (the CLP facilitates quality services, job creation and economic opportunities, responsive local governance and active civic participation).
From 2012 - 2016 Majida studied t the University of Adelaide in Australia where she obtained a PhD in Social Sciences, with the focus on local government policy reform. Since graduating, she has worked as a lecturer at the Arab American University of Jenin.
Dr Majida says that she cannot thank the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and Sheikh Mohammed enough for the scholarship and life changing opportunity afforded to her.