Bab Sharqi Community Lighthouse launches bazaar (The Beginning of a Road)

Damascus (ST): (Bazaar of the beginning of a road) that was launched by the Syria Trust for Development (Bab Sharqi Community Lighthouse) in cooperation and coordination with the Engineers Syndicate hall in Salhia attracted more than 80 women who established micro-projects that varied between manufacturing and drying food products, knitting, accessories, wool, gifts, toys, clothes and other products that were the beginning to enter the labor market and production.

Programs and trainings that women underwent in Bab Sharqi, Barzeh and Shahba community lighthouses opened the way for them to obtain operating grants or loans and enabled many women to establish micro-home projects and gave them strength and will to be free from fear to market their products, which have become the most important component for improving their livelihood and providing for their families, according to Taghreed Khalaf from Manarat Bab Sharqi.

Khalaf added: The bazaar, which is held over two days on the occasion of the 16 days of combating gender-based violence, is attended by a number of civil associations and development institutions within Damascus and its countryside, and the Engineers Syndicate, Damascus branch. It is an important opportunity for women to receive support to expand their projects and home businesses and to attract women to enter the labor market under the slogan (Hand in Hand, Word and Action, Everyone’s Responsibility Against Gender-Based Violence).

The Syrian Association for the Physically Handicapped participated through the works of ten children with special needs and 14 mothers, according to Inaam Sarhan, the educational social specialist in the association, indicating that the works include household food products, medicinal herbs and textiles, in order to support these children and their mothers economically and enhance their self-confidence and strengthen their skills to enter the labor market, while the Youth Association for People with Special Needs participated in handicrafts on the loom, which varied between (caps, shawls and gloves), in addition to embroidery and crochet work for children with special needs, according to Khalidia Dalati, the teacher in the association.

K.Q.