Beneficiary: Sarkis Avakian
Fund Date: 10/2019
Age: 60 years old
Family members: 5
When you practice the same job day after day for more than 25 years, it doesn’t only turn to a daily routine but it also becomes a part of who you are.
That’s how we can describe Sarkis’s case. Since 1991, Sarkis Avakian (58-years-old) has been touring the streets of Aleppo city, driving the school bus, gathering kids to take them to their school every morning. Driving the school bus is the way Sarkis provides for his family of five; his wife Ani, his son Mesrop, daughter Aline and his 75-years-old mother.
To support the family’s livelihood the 26-years-old Mesrop works as an automobile’s electrician, Aline his daughter does her best too, she works part time to cover her expenses as she is still a college student. They are barely making things work depending also on the financial aid the church distributes.
During the war, the family was no exception from all the people that were affected, specially that they live in Al-Midan neighborhood which was targeted with all kinds of missiles and mortar bombs, being near the contact lines between conflicting forces… one day the inevitable happened; a missile hit Sarkis’s building... the lower floor was burnt off completely and four people died on that day…
Luckily Sarkis and his family were safe, but their house was damaged, many cracks occurred in the walls, but with all the high costs of living they weren’t able to do the needed repairs, specially that Alice; Sarkis’s mother suffers from serious health problems, like heart and kidney failure which demand permanent medication, his wife also suffers from Thyroid insufficiency which requires medications, all of that put additional burden on Sarkis’s back.
In couple of years Sarkis will reach the age of retirement, that’s why he is thinking ahead and trying to have a plan B for his career. It’s how the idea of owning a taxi came to his mind. And since driving is almost his only career for more than two decades, it will suite him the best and at the same time it will improve his income significantly, that way he will be able to repair his house and support his family.