Syria – Restart, Khansa: “I want to be independent and support my family”

Khansa is 39 years old, after several moves she started living in al-Adawiya, a neighborhood of Homs. Before the war in Syria she was a housewife and took care of the house and children full time, but due to the conflict she lost her husband. From that day she became the reference for her family and alone she has to take care of the sustenance and care of her 4 children. She found a job at a sewing workshop, which made her a little stronger, but it was very tiring: she had to stay away from home many hours a day, without help that could support her in taking care of her family, especially a daughter suffering from hypoxia. Khansa dreamed of a job that would make her more independent and that she could better organize with her commitments and needs . When they called her for the project in Syria “RestarT” , a program born to create job opportunities suitable for the current Syrian market and able to guarantee a minimum income to the most vulnerable people, and they granted the credit for the necessary for her project she was really happy! The materials received, including a battery to operate the machinery during the frequent and prolonged periods of power cuts, will allow Khansa to continue working from home and earn a living wage, in agreement with a sewing workshop from which she will take orders. At the same time, this will allow her to be more present for her family and follow the growth of her children, who when they learned that their mother would be able to work from home exclaimed: “We will finally see you at home more and we will be able to eat warm food and feel the warmth of family.” Grateful for what she received to improve her condition, Khansa wants to teach her trade to some girls for free, so that from this small gesture of reciprocity, other women can also become independent and active in society.