Beneficiaries: Riad Kusrmali, Randa AL-Khouri
Fund Date: 03/2023
Age: 46 years old
Family members: 4
Skills and experience: 7 years
life had not been easy for Riad. He has two young children and a wife who works as a babysitter to help make ends meet, to add to his troubles, his two sisters were married to men that had been diagnosed with deadly diseases, and Riad took on the responsibility of supporting them as well.
Riad had always been a hard worker. For over 20 years he had worked with gold, crafting delicate and intricate pieces that were traded all around the markets. Despite the long hours, he had always enjoyed the precision and artistry that came with the job.
Despite these challenges, Riad was financially stable. He had managed to buy a house for himself and another one for his mother. He even worked on a pickup truck that he used to earn extra money with his business partner. But then the war came, and everything changed.
Riad lost 250g of gold due to the conflict, forcing him to close his business in 2012. He moved to Lebanon to work with gold there, but life for Syrians was difficult, and he had to return home less than a year later, jobless and struggling.
For six months, Riad searched for work with little success. But then he found a friend with a pickup truck that needed fixing up, and he spent a couple of months working on it. It wasn't the work he had been trained to do, but it was something. And then he changed to driving a taxi. He started driving part-time then turn it into his career.
With the support of the micro-project in Damascus, Riad is funded to buy his own taxi. It was a life-changing moment for him. He no longer had to pay rent for the taxi, and now he is able to work full-time, earning enough money to support his family and even help his sisters.
It wasn't the life he had imagined for himself, but Riad is grateful for what he have; his health, his family, and a job that provides for them.