Roads full of thorns, these are the roads that the Syrian young man “Ahmed Abo Omar” have been through from Deir Az Zor city to the countryside of the city to face the harshest sufferings till he reached the eastern countryside of Aleppo. He himself didn’t believe that he could survive the bombings and the military attacks on the Syrian cities to start the difficult and tiring life in AlBab city.
Ahmed is a young man at the prime of his life as he is (25 years old), he is married with one child. He is the breadwinner of his family. He has been living in AlBab city in northern countryside of Aleppo for two years in a semi destroyed house that has been bombed previously time and partly reconstructed and Ahmed rented it on monthly basis.
Young Ahmed says: “I have been displaced from Deir Az Zor city on 2012 because of the heavy bombing on the city. After a long dangerous road and facing a lot of sufferings we reached Deir Az Zor countryside (Almyadin). Since we couldn’t go back home to the neighborhood we used to live in, we have to live in Almyadin city for five years”.
He added, “I searched a lot for work but I didn’t succeed in finding any. I worked as freelancer for a while to be able to live in this city so I decided to work in selling clothes as we don’t know our destiny and we can’t stay at home with no work”.
He also said, “The attacks and bombing started on Almyadin city so we had to leave and go to areas far from the bombings. We stayed in torn tents till the road became safe and we headed to AlHassakeh and then to eastern countryside of Aleppo. On our arrival to AlBab city, my family and I faced a lot of challenges like high prices in the city, high rent cost as well as lack of any job opportunities to cover expenses”.
He pointed, “I decided to return to selling clothes but couldn’t afford the expensive prices of shop rentals so I prepared a simple small bag to sell different varied clothes inside the known market in Albab city which is called the “folks market”. The work was too weak and the return didn’t suffice anything because of the weak capital I had and the small amount of goods”.
About his registration in Kareem’s project for loans young Ahmed said, “I registered in Kareem’s project for small funding after hearing about it from a friend who was forming a group. We applied to get the fund which is a financial loan that will help us to expand our work more. After approval, I got the loan and I diversified my goods more and more till I had different kinds of clothes”.
And he ended his words by saying, “After the suffering and the long displacement journey inside my country, I could stand again and start over in my new career journey. I also had new customers which led to increase in my income and I’m still working on developing my work as my ambition is to open a big shop to sell different types of clothes”.