In the words of Mona Elsayyed: “Starting to work on what I am passionate about, life is getting brighter!”

Author: Laura Elhayek

Mona Elsayyed Ibrahim is a 46-year-old mother of a boy and seven girls, and she is their sole breadwinner. Her husband is unable to make a living due to suffering from an extremely aggressive form of cancer. Mona and her family live in Al Tibeh refugee camp in Northwest Syria, in a rented, unfinished building with unplastered walls and bare windows.

Mona worked in manual weeding, planting, and harvesting, for a landlord who did not pay her regularly. Barely managing to put food on the table, she was also burdened with debts to cover her children’s education expenses and pay for electricity and water supply, which were often cut off.

Mona is one of 273 women who have benefited from the UN Women Regional Programme titled ‘Increasing Access to Quality and Specialized Gender-based Violence (GBV) Services in Dana Sub-District.’ The Programme provides integrated community-based protection interventions and provides life-saving protection activities to conflict-affected populations across Northwest Syria.

At the age of twelve, I had to leave school when my family could not afford my education, finishing only elementary school, which left me barely able to read and write. My children were also not lucky enough to attend kindergarten; however, I did my best to have them enrolled in schools. Nevertheless, they face many challenges as I cannot help teaching them what I did not have the chance to learn.

With this programme, I luckily got the chance to take part in an English language course where I learnt the basics of the language, which I had never known before. This helped me support my children in elementary school, making me feel less guilty for being unable to pay for their extra courses as many other parents do due to the poor-quality education in the overcrowded school classes in the camp.

I participated in awareness-raising sessions, which were eye-opening experiences where I developed a sharp awareness of my rights as a woman and how to defend them. I learnt to recognize my value and what to do when faced with any type of gender-based violence. With these sessions, I now know how to tackle my stress and anxiety by pursuing my hobbies, such as gardening and sewing.

Sewing has always been where I feel most myself. With the cash assistance I received from the programme, I managed to buy a sewing machine and start my own business. Starting to work on what I am passionate about has made life brighter.

My new work has significantly eased the pressures and burdens that used to affect my well-being. I can now provide more food for my children, pay for some extra classes to improve their education, buy them some of the clothes they need, and get my husband the minimum of what he needs in terms of medicine and painkillers. Improving my family’s quality of life, even slightly, has been immensely rewarding.

My new business has not only influenced me but also my husband and children, who are now inspired by me and eager to acquire sewing skills. It has also reduced the levels of stress in our household, particularly for my husband, who used to become violent when overwhelmed with financial burdens.

I have noticed changes in the power dynamics within my family. Now, my husband and I jointly decide how to spend money to cover family needs. Moreover, my husband is becoming more proactive, understanding and supportive, taking care of the children and supervising them while I am busy with my work.

I look forward to growing my small business into a larger one, attracting more customers, and buying sophisticated sewing machines that will enable me to offer extra services. I hope that one day my business will provide work for women in our camp, many of whom are gifted but lack opportunities.”