Make a living inside the camp

Salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah (n.n. May the peace and mercy of Allah be with you).
Today, in my story I shall tell you a little bit about my endeavors during my time in the camp and the things I did to make a living and earn some much needed money to ensure the survival of my children and myself. The most interesting fact is that, up until then, I had no clue that I am good at doing so many things. I had never been aware before that I had so many skills. I cannot emphasize enough that it was imperative for me to find a way to make a living during the time spent in the refugee camp in Syria, as my relatives did not have the means to send me money or other necessary items, and even if they did, it was extremely difficult to do so.
The first thing I did to make a living inside the camp was to sell second-hand items. In order to do this, I had to wake up very early and go to the market inside the camp. There, each morning, a not very large vehicle arrived to bring bags of second-hand things. It was an entire challenge and a true quest to obtain such a bag, because there were many of us Muslim sisters, and just a few bags each day. All you had to do to claim a bag was to place your hand on it, so that everyone else would know that it is yours. But this was just the beginning. The next step was to make sure the items were in relatively good condition, which was a rather difficult thing to do, considering the bags were all tied up and you could not open them on the spot. So, every time I finally decided to take a bag I always relied on the Mercy of Allah that the things will be in a good condition and that I will manage not only to recuperate the money I had spent on buying the bag, but also to make a small profit. I dealt with selling second-hand items only for a brief period of time. Of course, there were instances when I registered losses and could not make back the money I had spent on buying some bags, but there were other times as well when I managed to sell some items for decent amounts of money. I liked doing this not only because it allowed me to make a living and earn something, but also because my family and I had the possibility to have „new” clothes for free.
The second thing I did for a while, during my stay in the camp, was to make extensions for the tents. This activity was extremely difficult, it required physical strength and it was very tiring, feeling like a true burden for a woman.
The next stage of my „career” in the camp was to make hand-made bracelets out of seed beads and other kinds of larger beads. This type of work was also quite hard and challenging. For starters, I had to go to the market and ask some of the people there to bring me thread and beads, and afterwards, to keep going and continuously ask them if the managed to bring them or not. The most important thing was, again, to have enough money to buy everything I needed to make the bracelets. Also, I have to mention I was not the only sister in the camp that dealt with such an endeavor, so I also had a bit of competition. But this type of work helped me, especially as, during that time, I had absolutely no money. What I like most about this kind of endeavor was that I learned to do different kinds of bracelets, that no one else in the camp could make and, each time I sold a bracelet, I could see the joy and happiness on the face of the Muslim sister that bought it. Because, isn’t it true that, no matter what our circumstances, no matter how difficult they are, we remain women and such little things like a beautiful bracelet can still bring a smile on our faces? Some of the Muslim sisters in the camp even bought from me one a kind bracelets, that I did not replicate again. If I dare say so, I sold them “exclusive items”.
Once, I even embroided an entire bag out of seed beads mixed with other types of beads for one the Muslim sisters in the camp. I designed the model and sew the entire bag myself, and she simply loved it.
Another thing I did in the camp for a while was to sew clothes for the women and the children that lived there. In order to be able to do this, I borrowed money from one of my acquaintances there and I bought a sewing machine. I had saved up some money so I can pay half of the amount straight away, and for the other half I agreed with her that I would pay the other half later. To be completely honest, I had not done such kind of activity before, but with the Will and Grace of Allah Almighty I managed to do it quite well. After some time, I even started to receive orders, as everyone liked my sewing. Allah has graced me with responsibility and diligence. There two qualities the Almighty has chosen to bless me with helped me a lot during my time in the camp, because I tried to do all the work extremely rapidly and as best I could. So, you see, my dear readers, Allah helps us in the most unexpected ways, even when we might seem to have no solutions, no apparent way out. And so, the Muslim sister that had borrowed me the money I needed for the sewing machine received them back quite quickly and I was able to erase my debt to her, by paying her from the money I had earned from my sewing work and from the clothes I was making.
As I cannot stress enough, again and again, in my articles, when you are in the camp you learn to survive as best you can. There were days when the money we had were not enough even to buy ourselves some bread. We had to deal with many hardships. But, Thank Allah Almighty, I have managed to endure and surpass this hard time in my life, and now I lead a normal existence, away from that place. Unfortunately, the camp still exists today, there are already seven years since women and children are held there and they try to survive each day, only through the Mercy of Allah Almighty.
Asira