Widowed Syrian refugee starts her own business in Erbil
Falak Suleiman, a Syrian refugee in the Qushtapa camp near Erbil, KRI – North Press
ERBIL, KRI, Iraq (North Press) – Falak Suleiman’s business began with a plastic tent and a handful of basic products. Today, her small shop covers the needs of the residents in Qushtapa camp, near the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).
Suleiman, nicknamed Umm Firas, eventually bought a small cart to carry broad beans, corn, coffee, tea, and sahlab (an orchid-based drink) to sell to the camp’s children. She became the camp’s first woman to operate a snack cart.
Umm Firas opens her small store at dawn. She organizes the shop’s items, cleans, and lights a fire to prepare broad beans and corn before 8 am.
She told North Press that her path towards becoming self-sufficient began when she moved to the KRI from Syria in order to support her family. Her husband, the family’s former breadwinner, died years ago.
By 2015 her business was thriving and she allowed herself to open a small shop in the camp.
“Things improved. I rented a small shop and bought products, such as tea, sugar, rice, milk, coffee, drinks, and other items from my earnings,” she said.
She was able to secure a steady source of income for her and the other members of her family, thereby proving that she could overcome the difficulties of life as a refugee in a foreign land. Despite her advanced age, she was able to start her own business and carry on working.
“I like my job and people come to me because I am hard at work since the early morning,” Umm Firas said. “I try to do my best, as I cook broad beans and corn for my countrymen who live in the same conditions that I do.”
The camp residents are inclined to agree. They all visit her shop, while school children wait in line to taste the hot broad beans from her cart.
Since the Syrian crisis in 2011, hundreds of Syrian women fled to the KRI residing in cities and camps.
Syrian women bore the brunt of hardships in the new life they lead. A lot of them have commenced their own projects in the camps to secure a safe living for their families.
According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2014, “More than 145,000 Syrian refugee families in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan – or one in four of all households – are headed by women facing a lone fight for survival.”
There are about 250.000 Syrian refugees in the KRI, mainly living in the three governorates of Erbil, Duhok, and Sulaymaniyah, according to the UNHCR.