Maher Dayoub and his wife Victoria with their seven years old twins; George and David, all live in Al-Midan area, in a borrowed house for one of their relatives.

Before the war, Maher worked in tailoring and clothes industry for many workshops. He was married and living with his parents at the family house. Things were good, but the war changed everything. When Victoria gave birth to her twins in 2012, the war had already reached the heart of Aleppo city. 

In addition to the constant fear and lack of safety, Maher faced other challenges like being the only provider for the family, his job depended on clients’ orders so there wasn’t any consistency, with the start of the war the business flow decreased drastically until Maher’s resources were drained out, he fled with his family to a village called Skailbiye; where some of his relatives live. When things got a little better in their neighborhood in Aleppo they returned, but this time Maher was obliged to find a new and stable source of income, and renting a taxi was the only suitable option.

This time Maher wishes to work on his own car to increase his income, and what he realized from his own experience is that this profession can make him a stable profit, and it could provide a decent life for the family, specially that his responsibilities are getting bigger as his twins are getting older.   

Fighting through the challenges of life can be hard enough as it is normally, but it would be even harder when you're living in a country afflicted by war.

Remon Mardelly had his fair share of obstacles, the 23 years old chose a profession in the musical field, he had always loved playing the keyboard, and he gradually grew an interest in composing music and slowly built his own small recording studio in his house in Al-sheikh Maksoud area.

In 2012, when the armed groups entered the area, Remon and his parents left everything behind after they were displaced from their home… he had established that studio from his hard work and he lost it all suddenly…not only that he lost his studio, but also the events that he used to play in were all cancelled which meant that Remon lost his job too.

In 2015, while Remon was walking around in AL-Suleymanieh streets, a shell fell nearby, and he was hit by a shrapnel. A year after his injury, in 2016, Remon was called to recruit in the military service and he had no other choice, and till this day he’s still in the service.

But the young man didn’t give up his passion and career, he tried to restart…

For the second time (a year ago), Remon started isolating a room in his rented house with covers to transform it into a musical studio, but due to the extremely high costs of the equipment he needed, he can’t afford purchasing them. 

Remon now is wishing to having his own equipment and his own instruments, and that will allow him to participate in more events (which is something he can’t do at the moment)  and at the same time invest in the studio recordings more than before.        

Geovanni Fakkas is 33 years old, married and a father of two; 11 years old Jeanette and 9 years old Sadek. 

He and his wife Antoinette have been struggling for long to provide a decent living for their kid, since their losses during the Syrian war were massive.

When Geovanni started his family in 2007, he was living with his parents, he didn’t have his own house. Two years passed and with the birth of his second child, he was able to move out to an apartment in Sheikh Maksoud with the help of the church.  It was a good start for the growing family, but after just three years the Syrian war started and Geovanni was displaced from Sheikh Maksoud like the majority of the neighborhood’s residents. Having nowhere to go to, they sought refuge at the “frère Mariste” convent who opened their doors to welcome many displaced families from the damaged areas. Although living in dorms with strangers for more than seven months was hard, but that wasn’t the only suffering they had to go through, Geovanni’s job was at risk too, the area of the warehouse where his work place was located was also confiscated by armed groups, and after many negotiations they were able to rescue a part of the merchandise, but the employees like Geovanni knew that they will be dismissed, and indeed in 2014, Geovanni was looking for a job to provide for his family.

In 2015, he started to work on a rented taxi, and after a while he got used to it and actually loved what he did for a living, during the last four years he changed many cars but never changed the profession, even when he traveled to Lebanon for few months ,when his rented house became in the range of snipers and it became extremely dangerous to stay in, his job there involved driving for an installation company. However, Geovanni couldn’t stay away from his city for long.

One of the advantages of this job is the freedom that it gives for the driver and the flexibility of the working hours, which is something Geovanni gets to have if he gets his own car, the thing that will also increase his income and improve the quality of life the family has.     

My name is Salem Shabarekh, I am a 37 years old married man. My wife Rana Fattouh and I got married in 2013, at the beginning of the war in Aleppo. God blessed us with 2 children; Samir and Adam, Samir is 5 years old and Adam is 1 year old. My wife doesn’t work because she has to take care of our little children. My mother Setta lives alone, so my brothers and I are responsible for providing her with everything she needs. I used to work in a company as a sales representative, I started working there in 2005 and the salary was good. when I got married and had children, my family stated growing, so I had to think about another way to get a better income. At the beginning of 2019, I started thinking about leaving the company where I work and opening my own business. In May 2019, I stopped working in the company and started my own business in distributing beauty products for pharmacies. My business is good, but the products that I have are not enough to develop my business and make it better in the future. I need to buy more products for my store in order to have more customers, in addition to a mini pickup truck to distribute the products from my store to pharmacies. This project will develop my business and make me an independent person, who can take care of his family and mother and provide them with the daily needs of life.

Every business related to electrical devices suffered immensely during the Syrian war. 

One of the first targets of the armed groups to paralyze the industrial and civil life, was the electricity generation plant that provides Aleppo city with electricity, thus, in 2012, the city was soaked in total darkness. And like we said every business regarding selling or repairing electrical devices was affected if not stopped, and Antoine’s factory (where he used to work in Al-Arkoub area) was one of them. 

The 52-years-old Antoine used to work in a factory for elevators’ installation and maintenance. He was one of forty workers that were discharged after the market went down, the factory closed and Al-Arkoub became extremely dangerous and deserted.

Through the 23 years of experience in the field of elevators maintenance, Antoine built a good reputation and many acquaintances that call him occasionally for maintenance purposes. But these occasional opportunities are not enough for Antoine and his wife Vivian to live a decent life, neither is the financial aid that the church provides.

Antoine didn’t have a lot of choices; he needed to do something and find a substitute. His expertise in his specialty field was good, but starting his own business in elevator maintenance would need a large amount of money, let alone that there isn’t a demand, he needed to think of something else…. 

The idea crossed his mind about driving, a thing that he enjoys deeply. What if he could have a taxi car? 

It allows him to spend his day driving which he doesn’t mind at all, it’s a good income, considerably a comfortable one since it doesn’t acquire much physical stress, and it is more suitable for Antoine’s age.

He hopes that his new job will upgrade his monthly income, and be sufficient to pay his house rent (which was damaged during the war from the falling shells all around his neighborhood) and to maintain a decent life for him and his wife.