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Hear-My-Heart: Recreational Activity to Acquire Basic Skills in Carpentry Entitled "From a Plank of Wood" - Arabesque Community Center, Aleppo

Carpentry is considered one of the most important and oldest industrial activities carried out by people, using wood in making tools for daily life uses. Since carpentry is an artisanship that affected many fields of life including furniture, an old man took the initiative to train men on the basics of carpentry, running sessions for 45 days.

The sessions covered general safety measures at work, taking measurements and cutting, assembly, making a full piece including finishing up and adding accessories (the men made a wardrobe from scratch).

The sessions lifted up some of the financial burden off of the shoulders of family providers due to the expensive prices of new furniture and high charges of maintenance.

The Syrian Society for Social Development cooperated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on conducting the training in Arabesque Community Center, Bab Al Hadeed, Aleppo.

Impact:

• “When you make your own piece of furniture you know its durable and it is much better than buying a new one. I never thought I would be able to make such a nice wardrobe and it is even cheaper than wardrobes in the market,” one man said in excitement.

• “When you make something yourself, you really see its worth. Even though we used somewhat primitive tools during the training, the wardrobes we made were superb. We were trained by Sheikh El-Kar [the master],” another man commented.

• “I learned how to concentrate, be precise, and save pieces of wood for other uses during design and cutting.”