Two Syrian Girls Take on Drinks Street Vending to Face Harsh Living Conditions
(AWP) - Despite the distance between them, Salwa and Zeinab are two Syrian girls united by the same line of work, as the first is a university graduate from Damascus and the latter is a university student in Lattakia and both were forced to find work outside their domains due to the harsh economic crisis in Syria.
Although it is not common for Syrians to see girls selling drinks in street carts, Salwa and Zeinab had the courage to take on this work of preparing hot and soft drinks and running their whole business without any outside help.
"I am 26 years old. I graduated from the university in 2018 and obtained a teachers’ preparation certificate. I previously worked in more than one place, a supermarket, a secretary, sweet shops, and a perfume shop, and now I settled here on this kiosk that I rented. It secures a good income for me. I never thought about how people would perceive me and how they would deal with me. What was preoccupying me was only success in my work to secure the expenses. In my opinion, it is not a shame for a girl to do a work like mine, especially in light of the difficult living conditions we live in here," Salwa said.
"I tried to work within my domain after graduation and I gave private lessons, but the income was not as it should be. As for the looks of surprise at being in this job, I am used to it from people, and words of support as well," she added.
According to Salwa, the biggest challenges she faces on the job "are electricity outages and the difficulty in obtaining gas, as the machines work on gas and electricity. I suffer like Syrians suffer from the shortage in gas and the almost continuous electricity outage".
Zeinab lives in Lattakia and studies history at the university. She says she decided to become independent from now on.
"It’s time to make my own way, the [current] conditions prompted me to decide to work in order to provide for my family and rid them of the burden of always providing me with expenses. This is the first time I enter the work market. I am a social person in general, but this work is getting me closer to people," Zeinab says.
"There are customers who come to get drinks because they felt a nice treatment [service], where we offer cold and hot drinks, and I dream of traveling, so I decided to learn a profession that might support me abroad, and what encouraged me to work in this place is the fact that the owner of the cart is also a girl," she concludes.