My name is George Ghazal Alber, I am 33 years old and married to Maria Tabakh. We have two little children, a girl named Cynthia 3 years old, and a boy Maiko who is 1 year old. I live with my family in a rented house in Sulaymania area in Aleppo city. I work as a photographer and video maker with my brother Bashir in our father’s shop, we inherited and learned this job from him, he spent his life building a career in this field and now we continue his hard work with the same passion. Unfortunately, during the war time, the shop was damaged by the frequent bombing in the time between 2012 and 2016, the worst time was just right outside the front of our shop, my brother was there but luckily he survived. We have put a lot of money over those years on fixing the shop damages. We need to develop our cameras because they became very old and our work in (weddings, events...) requires up-to-date technology and I can’t afford a new video camera. I am currently working by renting a video camera from different sources whenever I get a filming offer, this costs at least 10$ per hour and the shortest video is two hours of filming, hence after all my hard work I get only 8$ from all the video, this doesn’t even cover the cost of my house rent. My project is a video camera brand Sony SDR_AX 1, by having this camera I will become more independent and my income will improve greatly.

George Saghir is a 48 years old married man and a father of two children; Mary 13 years old, and Antonio 1 year old. They live in a flat in Al-Jabrieh. His wife Abeer is unemployed, so he is the sole provider for his family. His brother Michel Saghir is a 53 years old married man, and a father of 3 girls; Mariana, Sally, and Youstina. His wife Nada is unemployed and all of his children are school students, so he is the family supporter. Nichola Loze is married to George’s and Michel’s sister Afroseen, they have a son named Abdo, he is 28 years old. Before the war in Aleppo in 2012 the two brothers George and Michel and their brother-in-law Nichola all used to work together in a carpentry workshop in Al- Mouslimieh area, they also had two other workshops in that area, but they lost them with all the equipment, the machineries, and tons of wooden materials because of the war. They continued working in their workshop till the armed groups took over the area in 2012. They had a very successful business, but after losing their workshops they became without a job. In 2012 George and Michel bought a mini-van and started working on it to provide the basic needs for their families. Nichola was looking for a stable job, but he could not find one after 8 years of war, he now works with some of his friends in any field that he finds available. The three men want to reopen a carpentry workshop together that can guarantee a stable income for 3 families. They have the needed experience to start this project and they hope to receive the financial support to complete their ambition.

When you start your career since 1980, and practice it for more than thirty years it becomes a part of who you are, and what you are known for in your community.

Today, Nuhad Lucsa has worked as a driver from the age of 19. It was more like a family business, he was working on Idleb highway, while his brother worked on the Homs-Lebanon highway, the two would occasionally exchange places. 

Nuhad has always loved what he does for a living. The man spent his life driving between two cities, but in winter he used to stay in Aleppo. He was a well-known and trustworthy driver hired by more than one school, and by the Christian Sunday schools and when the school year is over, he goes back to Al-Qnayeh village his hometown in Idleb city, where his family stays while he goes back and forth. In 2010, Nuhad bought a house in Al-Midan for the family to settle in, not knowing that one day they will flee from Al-Qnayeh and live in Aleppo for good.

When Al-Qnayeh was taken by armed groups, the empty houses like Nuhad’s were confiscated forcibly which was a huge loss for the family, but what overwhelmed them even more was that Nuhad lost his job, since most of the highways were closed or extremely dangerous, and also most schools had stopped transferring the children by bus. All the family was left with Sana’s (Nuhad’s wife) retirement salary which obviously wasn’t enough, so Nuhad sold his mini bus to get some money.

Today, Nuhad works on a rented taxi and he has to split his hard work profit with the car owner, let alone the possibility of losing this source of income at any moment if the owner decided to sell the vehicle. 

With a little help Nuhad can have his own car, a thing which he have been wishing for a long time, he has many school students that will hire him, and a huge list of clients to work with when having his taxi. 

Antoine Ajami is 36 years-old man married to Rasha, in 2011 the couple were blessed with Toufic; their only son. 

First, the couple were living in his family’s house with his mother and sister. Rasha used to work as a makeup artist and Antoine used to practice his original profession in car furnishing in order to provide for the family, but after the birth of Toufic, they had to move to another house on rent. Despite the hard-living circumstances, they were managing their finances and making it through, until one day a tragedy happened, a sudden explosion near Antoine while he was working on a car, his leg was injured seriously.

The next 5 days after the incident were the hardest, he stayed in St. Luis hospital until his situation became stable, but unfortunately the injuries of his leg were severe, doctors implanted metal plates and screws during surgery, although they were able to save his leg, but his walk and posture were affected permanently. 

The unfortunate thing, which made things worse is that he couldn’t practice his profession anymore, his wife also stopped working due to neck and back pains she got, providing for the family became an exhausting burden. Luckily the hospital helped them with the surgery costs, but the high costs of living in such economic crisis with having to pay rent are hard enough. 

Moreover, Rasha has permanent medication prescriptions for gland condition which is a heavy extra burden too. 

A taxi car is a reasonable solution for Antoine; as he has a prior experience in driving; since he worked on a taxi for 2 years back in 2009, and most importantly driving doesn’t demand much physical activity or painful positions which might discomfort his leg. Also, the income is fairly good as long as one puts an effort and works hard, and that is exactly what Antoine has in mind for his new driving career.

My name is Aboud Koudsieh, I am 29 years old, I live with my mother, father and aunt in my aunt’s house because my father George who is 60 years old had a serious injury in his leg 3 years ago due to an accident, as a result we had to move from our home on the 4th floor to my aunt’s home which is on the 2nd floor. My mother Nadia is 52 and she is unemployed, my aunt Rima is a single woman who works in a sewing workshop. Like all Syrians, our house was hit by many missiles in the time between 2010-2017, my father used to work as a mechanic but because of his injury in 2016 he became unemployed and the responsibility of the family was on my shoulders. I am currently working in a bakery shop in Maysaloon area as a sales representative to distribute its products, I have been working in this field for more than 8 years now. I want to have a taxi of my own to work on because very soon I will be married and that give me even bigger responsibilities as I will be responsible for providing the needs for my parents and my own little family.