WOW 3 Success Story- Orgesë Rafuna

Women in Online Work 3 project, aims to raise awareness of the young women on the role of online working as employment opportunity for them to engage in distance working. WOW 3 is being implemented under the supervision of the Ministry of Economic Development, financed through Community Development Fund (CDF) and EMPOWER “Private Sector in Kosovo”, USAID. Implemented by Cacttus and NGO KS-Kosova as a consortium partner, the program continues to show signs of success.

The program is in the mentoring phase. Many girls by now have received their first online work contracts and have begun their journey in the world of freelancing. Whereas some of the girls have received their second work contracts. One of those girls that has already won 2 contracts on Upwork is Orgesë Rafuna, and this is her story.

I’m Orgesë Rafuna, 23 years old. I have finished Master studies in the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, Master of Clinical and Health Psychology program.

My profession as a psychologist and at the same time as a researcher always has pushed me to use different technologies and statistical programs that are more than necessary for my career. During my studies I was very curious about online work in order to practice my profession and to volunteer online by helping others over their common psychological problems.  So, as soon as I heard about this program, I immediately applied.

I wanted to be part of this program because as I mentioned before, I’ve always been interested to incorporate my professional area and experience with technology.  Moreover, I have always been fond of coding, those I decided to apply for front end development course.  When I heard the news that among the 1200 girls who applied for this program, only 50 where selected to be part of it, among which it was my name too, I was very happy.

WOW is definitely changing the game in our society and it was a wonderful opportunity for me to be part of online work. Since I was young, my sisters, my brother and I, had to spend half of the day alone at home because my parents had to go to work. Now that I have the opportunity to work online I always wonder how my childhood could be if my parents were doing the same thing during that time.

During WOW program we had the opportunity to learn a lot from our mentors. Besides teaching us new skills, they also prepared us for the online work field, for which we are very grateful to them.

My first long-term online job I’ve got was at a well-known American company “Sybarite Elite, INC” with a rating of 4.98 and over $ 20,000 spent on online jobs. My role at this company is to write different articles and especially those related to health, while at the same time knowledge about WordPress is required.

Thanks to the skills I have acquired during this program, now I am in constant contact with many clients for receiving the next jobs and I know that the most comfortable place on the world (My bed) can be my office at the same time. WOW3 program thanks to you, I can work and be in the places I want at the same time.