“Open Doors” Bazaar displays products made by young People with Mental Disabilities

Under the title “Open Doors “, a volunteer team from the “Al-Safina” Association  recently launched a bazaar of handicrafts works made by mentally handicapped people.

The two-day event included crochet, accessories canvas, embroideries and other products made by people with mental disabilities.

The exhibition is held annually to promote the products of young men and women, who are working in the “Al-Safina” workshops in Damascus and Jdeidet Artouz area, and to develop their skills.

Ghada Touma, the director of the Al- Safina workshops told Syria times e- ewspaper that the  association was established in1995 and it aimed to improve the life of people with mental disabilities and to develop their capabilities.

The supervisor and trainer in the association, Rimon, said: “The exhibition include various handmade products that depend on the recycling of paper, such as gift boxes, calendars, cards, Christmas decorations, various pictures of Syria, sand and oil paintings, in addition to bags and accessories.”

“Our goals are to support those people, improve their social conditions and to develop them”, he added.

Lina Kevorkian, who is in charge of making the families of the people with mental disabilities aware of  how to develop the capabilities of those people , said that the association seeks to make those people active society members.

Rima Absi, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Association said: “Since the establishment of the association, our aim was to do something good in the Syrian society.”  

She went on to say: “We did our best to change the life of the people with mental disabilities and to make them active in their society. After 25 years of experience in dealing with those people, we succeeded in making them active and we are proud of  the good result that we achieved.”

Absi  concluded by saying  that despite all the difficulties we passed through during the crisis in Syria we didn’t stop our humanitarian works and we hope to expand our workshops to cover all the Syrian cities.

Reported by : Nada Haj Khidr