My name is Fadi Makdiss, I am 35 years old, engaged to Helen Kahla. I live with my mother, father and brother. My father Paul is 70 years old; he is very sick and unable to work. My mother Louseen is 56 years old, she spends her time at home taking care of my father. My brother George is 32 years old and he works as a DJ in parties, he is engaged to be married very soon. I have a college degree in psychology, I also did many courses on computers and I taught this subject in schools for some time but I always had another interest that I felt very drawn to. I play music on a keyboard piano in parties and churches, I have been doing this job since 2009 and I have great experience in this field. I usually rent a keyboard to use it in my work because I don’t have one, but this leaves me with a very low percentage of the profits that I usually get from events. In addition, a lot of people refuse to hire me for their parties when they know that I do not have my own equipment. I applied at the Hope Center for a keyboard type “payxpro”. I want to have my own keyboard to work on to be an independent person who can build a career and start a family.

It all started with an urgent phone call in one early morning in 2012, Gabriel received bad news from a colleague member warning him not to come to his workshop because the armed groups have invaded the area, stole the shops, and spread destruction everywhere. That was only the beginning of some misfortunate events.

Gabriel Boulos who’s 58 years old, and works in carpentry related business of mainly furniture painting and sometimes manufacturing furniture, is married to Malak Tannous and the couple has 3 children; the 18-years-old Michael lives with them, while his brother and sister are in Lebanon. 

Gabriel’s long experience in painting wooden furniture which has been accumulating since 1984, made him a workshop owner in Bustan Al-Basha and a furniture showroom in Al- Sulaymaniyah, in addition to the house that the family lives in. unfortunately, it all went down the drain with the beginning of the war.

After that phone call everything was changed, Gabriel lost his business and the family had to spend all their savings, until the couple started working in packaging clothes from their home to manage the daily living expenses, but the frequent electricity blackouts made it impossible to continue. They started working for other workshops but the income was very low.

As if life wasn’t hard enough as it is, a missile hit their building while they were at home. A very terrifying memory; the vision was blurry and everything was covered in dust from the explosion and he didn’t know if Michael and his mom were okay… 

Shortly after dodging that fatal incident, the family decided to move to a village in Tartous city, and rented a house there, along with a shop to resume working in furniture painting. They stayed there for six years until Michael finished his baccalaureate degree and applied in Aleppo university.

Today after Gabriel and his family came back to Aleppo, all they want is to try and get their life back on track and he hopes to repair the shop, and reopen it to make a decent living from it and put all those rough times behind, and look forward for a better future.

Yousef Nahass is a 23-years-old electrician Who is the sole provider for the family of three; his father Abdo, sister Rita and himself. Despite his young age, he chose to take the financial responsibilities and work as an electrician. He first started working after the family traveled to Lebanon in 2011, with the start of the Syrian war.

His father stayed back in Aleppo for a while longer to arrange everything related with his workshop, car, and other belongings, but unfortunately Bustan Al-basha area, where his workshop was located, was one of the first areas raided by the armed groups. The workshop became out of reach, and later on Abdo heard that the equipment was stolen. 

The father who lost everything sold his car and followed his children to Lebanon. Meanwhile, Yousef and Rita were staying at a relative’s house until Yousef could find a job and earn some money to rent their own apartment. To face these hardships at an early age was hard for Yousef, but it helped him master his craft and strengthened his personality so he would be able to stand on his own feet. In addition, he was supporting his father to re-open his workshop by purchasing new equipment to replace the stolen one, but that plan didn’t work out since it was very expensive and the area of Bustan-Al-Basha itself was damaged severely so its habitants and workshop owners didn’t return back yet.

Yousef not only helps his father, but he also takes good care of his sister, he is very kind and considerate of her, especially that she was deeply affected by the war and the circumstances they went through while living in Lebanon, which encouraged Yousef to return back to Aleppo in 2018.

It wasn’t strange to find a job for an electrician’s shop in Al-Seryan neighborhood. All he needed was a start point, so he worked for the shop owner (while he was away) and slowly got recognized by the inhabitants for his skilled work and good quality service. 

Now it’s time for Yousef to start his independent business with the good reputation he built during these years, and the skills he developed in his craft, and hopefully after opening his own shop for electric devices sales and repair, the son and father could collaborate and help each other to secure their family’s future. 

Family is what gives you the roots to stand tall and strong, it is the first support unit in times of hardships, Hagop comes from such a family.

Hagop Lutfi used to work in goldsmithing since 1997, despite the fact that he didn’t have his own independent business, but he surely has the skills for the delicate craft.

he has two brothers, one of them was in the military service since the start of the war, he was already in service for 8 years when Hagop was called to serve in the army in 2017, it was the worst timing for such a news, his wife was pregnant after many years of unsuccessful conceiving trials. It was hard for them to have two family members on the fire lines … so his other brother took the action. 

After two months, his brother volunteered to serve in the army instead of him; so Hagop would stay with his family (since there is a law that says if a person becomes the sole provider for the family, he gets to be exempt from the military service). Indeed because of his brother’s sacrifice, Hagop came back home to his wife Mary and newborn son Hovsep.

Although being the sole provider is what saved him, but it has put heavy financial burdens on Hagop’s back. His house is rented, his wife has left her job after giving birth, and his mother lives alone so he has to support her as well, and that is almost impossible with only one salary. 

Hagop wants to work as a taxi driver to increase his income. It is convenient for him because of the flexibility in his schedule, he can work in his workshop and work on the taxi to secure a better life for the whole family. 

The remaining shrapnel in his head is a constant reminder of the vicious war that Roland lived.

The 39-years-old Roland Makdissi was a victim to something he didn’t have anything to do with. in 2016, a mortar shell fell on a building in the same street where he and his wife Salpy live. The positioning of the shrapnel was very delicate, it caused him facial Hemiplegia. The couple consulted many doctors and all of them agreed that leaving the shrapnel inside is much safer than removing it; since the removal procedure contains a great risk of causing more nerve damage.

However, this injury wasn’t the only suffering for Roland, from a young age, he used to own a retail shop for selling car spare parts in the industrial area called Al-Ramouseh, when the war started, it was one of the first targeted areas by the armed groups. His shop was confiscated with all the merchandise in it. It was a great loss for the couple, especially that they were trying to conceive for years and weren’t getting lucky, and all the treatments were costing them a great fortune. Prior to his injury, when he lost his shop Roland took his wife and went to Latakia for two years, while staying there, he worked as a tar machine driver.

But after the injury, his job options were minimized, he couldn’t do anything that would cause a stress on the nerves like the chores that demand heavy lifting or physical effort. That’s the main cause of choosing this career. It is both suitable for his health condition, and at the same time it provides a good income that they really need since the only income for them is his wife’s salary from working in a dentist’s clinic.

Roland deserves to have a chance to increase his income, recover from all the misfortunes that got in his way, and secure an amount which will enable him one day to start over his business in Al-Ramouseh.