LETTER OF MOTIVATION Dear Selection Committee, I Mohammed Abdukadir Seid, I was born and grown in one of the least developing country Ethiopia, where more than half of its population is living in an abject poverty, earning less than a dollar daily adding fuel to the fire, the degree of literacy is one of the lowest in the world and ignorance is rampant in both urban and rural areas. All this and others have made my country to experience most and remain in the vicious of multifaceted socio- economic problems. The course focuses on socioeconomic insecurity and the underlying issues of poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion. It explores the causes behind insecurity, its many faces, as well as the strategies and policies employed by states and civil society to address them. It also deals with social and economic policies that alleviate insecurity, and critically examines the currently dominant residual and targeted approaches to social security. I have held several leadership positions over the past 8 years in Afar Region. I have worked as Dean of Samara University’s student office. This position gave me an opportunity to design proposals for resource mobilization, project implementation, and monitoring, evaluation and supervision of staff. I have also been Head of Department of Professional Education at Samara University, a position through which I was able to coordinate several initiatives, supervise and deal with partnership issues among other things. Moreover, I have been serving as a lecturer at Samara University since 2008. It gave me an opportunity to deliver capacity development trainings on Gender Based Violence. I have an experience of working with United Nations (UN) agencies, particularly with World Food programme (WFP) in various filed assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and community household surveillance works. On the academic sphere, I am a holder of Master's Degree in Gender Studies. I was trained and certified as Trainer of Trainers (ToT) on life skill by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women and Children in delivering training on life skill and other gender relates issues. The reason for choosing this specific Master Programmed comes from the fact that in the near future I would like to know more things regarding to Master in Social Work with Families and Children. I already got some ideas in my mind, but unfortunately until now I did not have the right knowledge and the right tools for putting them in practice and that is why I am well aware that this Master Programmed would be an excellent starting point for me. Attending this specific Master’s Program will enable me to meet my academic and professional goals. This gives the programme a truly global character, and a great potential to respond to needs in skills development, teaching, research and employability in the area of social work with children and families. It will give me a first-hand experience of international scholarship that will help me develop the skill of working alongside people from different background. After accomplishing this program, I aspire to further my studies by doing a PhD to be a qualified researcher. It is my hope that this master’s program will open a path that will take me to success in my effort to be a successful academician and researcher. I have no doubt that the academic and life experience I will get by pursuing this Master will enable me to make better contribution in my profession. I hope that the University will give me the opportunity to learn a great deal from research and academic staffs of Antwerp University. I would also hope to be able to take part in appropriate programmers of further education, should this be on offer. I am young, hardworking, and motivated person with an ambition to serve the Afar community. Given my knowledge of Afar region, my professional experiences and educational qualifications, I am confident that I will be the right candidate that your organization is looking for. Finally, should you have any query or the need for further information, please do not forget to drop me few lines of e-mail through my address. Looking forward to working for your esteemed organization.
Kind regards, Mr. Mohammed Abdukadir Seid
