Nahla and Ibrahim: The Bazaar project is an opportunity to overcome the difficulties of life in the midst of displacement

Nahla Hussein al-Mohammad (31 years old), joined the vocational training workshops launched by the GAV organization in Tal al-Samen camp for Tal-Abyad IDPs and its countryside days ago, to change the course of her life and the life of her small family.  

Al-Mohammad was displaced from the town of Hammam al-Turkmen after the Turkish offensive on the border areas in northeastern Syria last October, and lived in Tal al-Samen camp with her three children. 

This mother lost her husband during the battles to liberate the city of al-Raqqa from ISIS three years ago, after he was injured by a landmine explosion of the remnants of the war.   

Al-Mohammad is currently doing her best on learning dressmaking, which she did not practice before but only for a few periods sporadically. However, she shows a great passion in learning the skills of this profession, so that she can secure a steady source of income that supports her to secure the sustenance of her small family. 

Al-Mohammad says that Bazaar project provided her with an opportunity for the financial independence for the first time and reduced her dependence on humanitarian aid, expressing the need for every girl or person to have an opportunity to pursue a specific profession that helps them secure life’s requirements and break the routine that overwhelms the lives of the IDPs in the camps away from their homes, as the circumstances of the war have been going on for years.  

While Ibrahim al-Jassem (41 years old), who joined the vocational training workshop within the Bazaar project, which started on June 21, says that the project is almost the first opportunity he has to independently develop his skills in sewing.  

Al-Jassem was displaced from the town of Suluk where he lived since 2005, after the Turkish offensive on the border areas in northeastern Syria about 9 months ago, to reside in the city of al-Raqqa, but the high costs of life forced him to move with his wife and three daughters to Tal al-Samen camp. 

Al-Jassem learned the basics of sewing at the hands of his mother when he was young, then moved to work in different workshops in the city of al-Raqqa and the town of Suluk, before deciding to travel to Lebanon and after that move back to Syria years later.  

Al-Jassem sees the Bazaar vocational training project as a starting point for opening a new page with life within the IDP camp, pointing out that this opportunity will finally enable him to support his family without depending on aid provided by humanitarian organizations, to redraw the features of his new life from now on.  

In the face of the enormous difficulties he endured during the long years of war, al-Jassem says he will work in the future to help everyone who wants to learn sewing to help them secure a steady source of income that will support them during the difficult conditions, as he got this opportunity. 

GAV organization launched the activities of the Bazaar project in Tal al-Samen camp on June 21, aiming at training 24 male and female beneficiaries of the camp’s residents on sewing, dressmaking, hairdressing and haircut, under the supervision of professional trainers.  

The project aims to reintegrate the trainees into the labor market after obtaining professional training, in addition to supporting them with the tools necessary to launch special projects in specific professions, to help them secure steady sources of income for them and their families, and reduce their dependence on humanitarian aid.