Vecken has been battling with the hardships of life to take care of his wife and two boys; Garo and Hagop. The war may have ceased in the fighting sense, but its impact on families is still overwhelming. 

Through the first years of war hundreds of shells were falling in their neighborhood, the building in front of theirs was destroyed by one of those shells and their house was severely damaged. Those explosion terrifying sounds affected their youngest son’s physiological health and he has been stuttering ever since.

The financial situation was not good either. Long time ago Vecken was a car mechanic, but for medical reasons he had to quit that field of work. Later he became a janitor at Al-Sharek school. However, the salary is poorly able to support four people during this economic crisis, that’s why Vecken started thinking about finding another source of income to be able to put bread on the table and afford all the educational expenses of his boys. 

The taxi is a life changing step for Vecken, who was happy that he found the type of career that won't interfere with his part-time job, suits his health condition and at the same time will give him a good income.

Joseph is a graduated architect, but besides his studies he has always been a hardworking and self-dependent man.

His father had lost his workshop and the machinery, and when the family lost their livelihood, Joseph started seriously considering having a full-time job. First, he volunteered with an organization then in 2018 he started working on a laser cutting machine. Utilizing his designer skills, Joseph started making a living by selling architectural models, wooden accessories and many other items. The problem arose when the owner of this machine decided to end their partnership and sell the machine. Joseph would had lost his work because he couldn’t afford to buy a similar machine on his own. 

But Joseph did not give up, he applied to micro project hoping to save his business and indeed he purchased his own laser machine and used his father’s workshop space, and now he is looking forward to have a successful work. 

Rania comes from a big family, she lives with her mother, both of her brothers and their own families, all in the same household. From early on Rania grew to be an independent, strong woman on every aspect. Her long years of experience in the sewing field enabled her to open her own workshop just before the war started.

Like many people, Rania was affected by the ramification of war. The lack of electricity, the bombing and the bad economics in general forced Rania to sell some of her equipment in order to pay the last salaries of her employees before having to close. Beside the loss of her business, Rania also went through a life-threatening experience when in 2014 she was injured by a falling shell near her house while she was playing with her niece on the balcony, her injuries were critical, luckily doctors removed the shrapnel from Rania’s face and she recovered well.   

The old and small apartment does not suit the large family, That’s why Rania’s brothers will try to move out, this puts all the responsibilities of taking care of her ill mother and the daily life needs on her shoulders alone. 

With determination and hard work Rania is reopening a sewing workshop of her own. She finally bought a part of the machinery that she lacks and now is establishing a good business, taking advantage of her experience, good relations in the business community and the most important the well-known quality of her work. 

Saad is a 37-years-old man who chose to make a risky decision of changing his career more than five years ago. Originally Saad was working in retail business, but after loosing his shop and the merchandise in Al-Ramouseh, he found himself without any job for more than two years, he decided to begin a new career in tailoring. He started this path by taking a course to learn everything related to this new domain, then he borrowed his uncle’s old sewing machine and hoped for the best. 

This hardworking man managed to succeed in his job despite all challenges, he recently relocated his shop and with the new location he felt the need to expand his business (specially that his current machine is warn-out and not sufficient anymore to satisfy customers’ needs). 

Saad’s ambition needs help to be turned into reality, the additional machines he wishes to obtain are necessary to raise the quality and variety of his production, but he doesn’t have the sufficient resources. With the help of Micro Projects program, the chance of improving the lifestyle for this hardworking man and his family . 

Akram, his wife Claude, son Salim and daughter Dalal have witnessed the war in Aleppo and suffered immensely of its consequences. The constantly falling shells during the first few years affected Salim and Dalal’s mental health greatly, the explosions and the horrors pushed them on the verge of a breakdown. Specially when one of those shells hit Akram's car that was parked in front of their building.

Akram’s business was also affected, when his partner decided to leave the country, they had to sell all the machines to separate their finances. All that left Akram with an empty workspace with no sewing machines to work and make an income. 

Since safety is back to the city of Aleppo Akram was encouraged to start over and reopen his workshop, but with no financial resources or help it seems impossible. He needs support to buy the sewing machines that will ensure an efficient work flow for Akram’s business. Hoping that this step will Help Akram provide a decent life for his family in the future. 

Just with the start of war, Shadi was called to serve his mandatory military service, Shadi went to his assigned position in Damascus without knowing that this period of his life will extent to over than nine years. 

During those years he went through many hard and challenging circumstances, he overcame many dangers and dodged many explosions, and finally was discharged in April 2020. His wife and two daughters were very excited for their father coming back home, they were united again and moved back to their old house (during Shadi’s absence his wife and children were staying with her parents).Being away for so long Shadi had to establish a business of his own, and with no financial resources the only solution he found was to transform a small part of his 32 m2 house into a plumbing shop where he can receive clients and store all the equipment and spare parts. 

Today shadi needs support to purchase the tools needed for his job, in addition to some merchandise like pipes to be able to work properly and maintain a decent income for his family. 

Aboud, his wife Huda and his two sons Nicholas and Carlos (12 and 6 years old) live together in the family residence in Aleppo, along with Aboud’s mother Mouna.

At the beginning of war, Aboud couldn’t reach his carpentry workshop in Handarat area, all the roads were cut off and the armed groups took complete control of the area. When dangers of mortar shells became closer and more severe, Aboud took his family and fled to Marmaritta village far from the war beaten Aleppo. 

Eventually Aboud couldn’t stay away from his hometown. So, in 2018 he made the decision of coming back and settling in his parents’ house. In order to financially support the family, he rented a modest carpentry workshop. The problem is that the workshop lacks many important equipment and machines that Aboud can’t purchase on his own.

With your help, Aboud will be able to obtain all the tools to upgrade his production and thus, his profit will increase significantly in the future. 

Costantin was building a name for himself in the market and planning a successful career as a car electrician and mechanic, when the war started and interrupted not only his career but also his family's life.

In 2015, Costantin’s house in Al-Suleymanieh was severely damaged by a mortar shell that exploded in the adjoining building causing complete destruction to Costantin’s 5th-floor-apartment, where he and his mother live. However, the biggest loss for the family was the death of Costantin’s older brother in the war. His death was a tragedy on the family they couldn’t bare to lose him especially that he left behind a little daughter. 

Costantin was devastated and depressed but what helped him to continue was his little niece and his mother, for them he stayed strong and resilient. 

Today Costantin is planning to start over and be more independent, for two years now he has been saving money and purchasing some of the equipment needed, but in order to launch his own workshop he needs a little help in buying all the tools and essentials. By supporting Costantin, we will be a part of this young man’s success which will reflect on the life of the family.

Albert Gergi is a 45-years-old industrial man, who has 30 years of work experience in Metal lathing.

Albert is married, and a father of Mark; his 15-years-old son. He lives with his family in their house in Al-Serian neighborhood, which was relatively safer than other areas in Aleppo during the war. Unlike Al-Sheikh Najjar where he works. 

While all his relatives have left the country during the war, Albert chose to stay in Aleppo his home town for many reasons; besides being the place where he spent his whole life and loved so much, he also has established his work here and his roots, but most importantly his elderly parents live here and it is impossible for Albert to leave them behind. He is the only one left to take care of them, as one of his brothers lives in Austria while the other is in Sweden. 

Although the family life was stable for Albert, but the business world was not the same. In his domain establishing a thriving business requires a massive capital, Albert made a partnership to be able to obtain the needed machinery. Years went by and he was successful in his job, despite the economic situation which was associated with war, he was financially surviving. But what Albert didn’t expect was that his partner withdrawal from the partnership which Albert can’t afford in this difficult time.

The three months of lock-down due to the Corona Virus, the lack of transportation to the industrial area of Al-Sheikh Najjar (where his workshop is) and the over the roof prices of everything in the market had its toll on Albert. 

Albert applied for the micro projects program hoping that the funding he gets will be a savior for his business because unless he doesn’t take action and find a way to obtain his machinery, he will lose the machines, and that simply means that he will lose his workshop and his life work will be gone to no use. This support for Albert will create a second chance in business and more stability for his family in their foreseeable future. 

George Korjian (32 years old) is a self-made hardworking man, whom like many Syrians was affected by the exhausting prolonged war.

His bitter experience started in 2013 When George was still single. He used to work in Sheikh Najjar area in a plastic chairs manufacturing factory. This hard-working man was trying to build his future, his daily shift would extend to approximately 18 hours, but George didn’t mind the tiredness, on the contrary his concentrated efforts paid off when in a short period of time George established his own workshop for recycling old chairs and producing new ones.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t too long before the war changed everything. The area of Sheikh Najjar became out of reach and the armed groups confiscated his property with all the primary materials that he had invested in.

By then George had to start over from scratch, he opened a shop to sell movies and music CDs, and other services that go with it, being a great salesman George succeeded in this job; in a short period, he became popular and gained a lot of customers. It was important for him to excel in his job because he was about to start a family with his fiancé (now wife) Diana. After postponing their wedding multiple times due to the war and the economic circumstances. George and Diana tied the knot in 2016, and since then they were blessed with a son Gabriel and now, they are expecting another baby soon.

As the years went by, George’s family started to grow and the income from the CDs store was not sufficient anymore. Life suddenly was becoming more expensive and George was searching for a solution. Around that time a spice shop near his current shop was for rent, the owners were asking for a low rent because they were going to travel, George knew it was a great bargain so he quickly seized the offer and started learning about this new profession from his relative who was in the spice trade. George soon learnt about different spices and like always stood on his own feet, despite the health problems that he was facing in that period of time because of his chronic liver condition. 

However, George’s health is more stable now and he wants to keep the good work. With a little help he will be able to obtain a grinding machine for coffee next to the spices, so he can to be able to distinguish his shop and compete with the local market by providing freshly grind and high-quality materials for his clients in the future.

Not many people have the courage to leave their job and switch to something they love, that is what Gaby did by quitting work in a goldsmithing workshop, to choose a pretty unique field; hand making souvenirs rosaries and religious art pieces. This artisan who is also a father of three daughters, made this change back in 2006, since he was the sole provider of his family that was smaller back then.

Gaby was struggling to provide from his weekly paycheck at the workshop and he didn’t have enough capital to work independently in goldsmithing, so when a friend offered him help and support to start a new business, he accepted this opportunity specially that this domain he chose also requires hand skills. It was a rough start but Gaby was determined to make it work. Slowly his business grew, he had two employees to help him with the orders that were coming not only from Aleppo, but also from other cities around the country and even from Lebanon. Life wasn’t easy for the 54-years-old Gaby; he was diagnosed with “Crohn’s Disease”; a condition that is chronic and he eventually needed surgery.

This lifelong battle with the disease was truly exhausting, specially that the war added to the agony of the whole family. Gaby considers himself lucky that no serious material damages happened to them, but the emotional impact of war was devastating.

Today Gaby, His wife Sanaa and his daughter Patricia have put the war and its bad memories behind, but the high livelihood costs and the lack of the primary materials, still made their life difficult, specially that they have the house rent and the store rent to pay every month which is not easy at all.

The latest outbreak of corona virus didn’t make things any easier, the high prices and the closure of jobs has put Gaby in a critical situation, that’s why this support came in the right timing. He wants to purchase a good amount of “resins” and primary material since it is the hardest to get, in order to use in new designs in the future, hoping that things would turn around and the upcoming days hold success. 

When you live in a fifth-floor apartment in Al-Suleymanieh area, with no High buildings around you to protect you from the shells you can relate to Aboud sayes’s story.

When Aboud (34-years-old) married his wife Aline few years into war, buying a house was hard for the young couples, one of their relatives felt sympathy towards their struggle and offered them an apartment to live in since the owners had left Syria because of the war and the house was empty anyway.

Aboud appreciated this generous gesture sincerely, it lifted a huge financial burden off his shoulders and gave him the possibility to focus on establishing a business of his own to provide for his family, after a couple of years during the war, the family welcomed their first daughter and not long after that their son.

Despite their house’s critical location, the damage was mostly exterior; in broken glassware and windows from the nearby explosions, Aboud and his family didn’t leave their apartment only for a short time when the situation was unbearable, the greater damage was the emotional and psychological one, Aline still remembers how she would grab the newborn baby girl and run, seeking a safer place under the building staircases. While Aline was concerned with her children’s safety, Aboud had an additional concern; how to provide for them. 

His business was good, he was relying on his old experiences in clothes manufacturing workshops to excel in a not far field of designing clothes embellishment patterns and embroidery. However, the problem with that type of business is that it is always developing, there are constant improvement in machinery and tools that Aboud in the midst of everything else could not keep pace, the high prices of this machinery prevented him from getting ahead in his job and eventually became overwhelmed by the slowing business. 

This support will give Aboud the opportunity to outplay the economic hardships that Syrian business owners are facing, he will add to his existing machines a laser fabric cutting machine to expand his production and make a decent living for his family.