Bazaar training gives Rasha and Jinan a chance to change the course of their lives

Rasha Ahmed Assaf, 30, joined her new job in a dressmaking workshop in the city of Raqqa, about a month after the start of training for the fourth phase of the “Bazaar” project for developing women’s skills in this profession.

Assaf was not lucky to find a job to support her family of six, along with her only child girl, but things have changed since she joined the (Bazaar) workshop for vocational training, which was launched in Raqqa to qualify women professionally and help them find job opportunities.  

She said that she started working in a local dressmaking workshop after mastering the skills and arts of sewing and tailoring, after joining her colleagues in the vocational training workshop in the context of the fourth phase of the (Bazaar) project.

She started her business journey with small steps, as she started tailoring and sewing the clothes and fashions needed for her family members, especially her young daughter, which helped her, she said, to save more money that she had to spend on buying clothes as basic and indispensable needs.  

Then, she moved to work in a local dressmaking workshop after developing her skills and gaining the necessary confidence since joining the vocational training workshop, saying that she is having a great time catering to different customers’ demands, not to mention feeling financially stable for the first time, as she put it.

As for Jinan al-Alyan, 35, who found herself the breadwinner of a family of eight after the death of her husband in a Syrian prison, she started a new journey since joining the vocational training workshop for women within the “Bazaar” project.  

Al-Alyan, who was forced to flee repeatedly during the war years, said that she found her new path from the moment she joined the dressmaking workshop, which represented an opportunity for her to re-establish her life. 

Al-Alyan, who is currently working to meet the various demands of customers, the main factor in making this change was the vocational training workshop program that developed her skills in designing, tailoring and sewing different types of clothes, according to her.   

The practical training in the dressmaking profession started on June 12, with the participation of 24 women from Raqqa city, in an attempt to support women in securing continuous and stable livelihoods for them through an intensive training program, in addition to training in professional marketing over a period of two and a half months.   

The general context of the project supports the reintegration of the female trainees into the labor market in line with the plan to provide them with technical support, help them obtain stable job opportunities, and focus on improving their economic level to allow them to rely on themselves and secure a stable income for their families, and to achieve financial independence for them.  

The project comes in its fourth phase after empowering the skills of (84 male and female trainees) from the residents of Tel al-Samen camp and Raqqa city during the previous three phases, in the professions of sewing, dressmaking, haircut, hairdressing, plumbing, gypsum board and home electricity, in addition to professional marketing training.