From gold casting to pipe casting .. Safa Sukkariya is a Syrian refugee storming into men's professions

Ayman Fadhilat - Irbid / North of Jordan

She did not expect one day that the next 50 years would come from Syria, Safa Sukkariya, with a profession reserved for men, specializing in household plumbing, maintenance of water tanks, laundries, and drinking water filters.

When she went to take a course in plumbing in gold and engraving on precious stones, she accidentally led her to a course in plumbing work known in Jordan as (Al-Mawasirej), a term given to workers in household maintenance work for sanitation, bathrooms, kitchens, and others.

It is a profession that is almost closed in Jordan to men, due to the difficulty and hardship of working in it, yet it was stormed by Safa and a number of women with her since 2015, to prove their worth and their ability to work in this field.

Women are permanent customers
Safa and as a result of working in this field, she has a lot of customers, especially women, because it corresponds to the social customs of Jordanians who prefer to use female staff to maintain homes when men are absent from their work, which facilitates work on housewives and workers with Safa in the plumbing profession.

Safa, with the help of a number of her workers, was able to open an operator for her in the craft area of ​​Irbid, then entered the world of training for groups of girls, whether Syrian or Jordanian refugees wishing to learn this profession, which opened up to them job opportunities and appropriate financial income, until she became trained in this field In Irbid and other governorates.

Three levels of training
In the academy established by Safaa, she offers three levels of training, within a written curriculum approved by official authorities.

The first level is devoted to first aid for domestic work, and is for a period of two months, and is offered to housewives who are not looking for work, but are learning to address any problems of maintenance work facing them at home.

While the second level is devoted to women who want to work in the field, and the duration of this level will be six consecutive months, in which women will learn health and electrical installations, and home maintenance from any health or electrical problems.

As for the third level, it is devoted to the trainers who provide the first and second levels, and in this field six girls and two young men work with them, who are trained in household maintenance.

The Safa group of female trainees is granted a certificate certified and accredited by an official body affiliated with the Jordanian Ministry of Labor, which qualifies them to practice work in these professions formally.

Overcoming barriers
The Syrian refugee (Al-Zoubi) from the city of Daraa supports about thirty members of her family, who lost in the war her four brothers, leaving behind their wives and children without a breadwinner.

Al Zoubi, according to her talk to Al Jazeera Net, learned about the Safa Plumbing Project for several years, and she did not hesitate to work with her, because she found a rewarding financial return that helps her in helping her family, and saving her from the poverty they live in.

She said, "For four years, I worked in the field of plumbing in the city of Irbid after I trained in the Safa Academy, and I faced many obstacles at the beginning of my work, but I overcame it, until I became a coach in the academy to provide benefit to all those in need."

Participation of men
With the progress of the Safa project, its popularity, and the increase in the numbers of customers, competition began with the men working in this profession, which forced it to partner with them in heavy and heavy work, and it used Safa in the field of training for young people working in this field.

Al-Thalathini, Asad Al-Ghanim, Safa participates in training future girls to learn this profession in the Deir Alla area of ​​the Southern Jordan Valley, after he got acquainted with her project through the workshops.

Al-Ghannim told Al-Jazeera Net that the courses organized by Safaa Group are popular with girls in the Deir Alla region, especially as they open job opportunities for them that secure an appropriate financial income.

Al-Ghanim shares the trainees with his experiences in home maintenance work, supervises the work that they perform in the workshops, addresses any mistakes they make, and overcomes the obstacles facing their continuing work.

Safaa opens the doors of work for girls
Safaa's work did not stop there. Rather, she opened other fields of work for girls, including maintenance of electrical appliances, maintenance of air conditioners, and paint jobs, in her quest to save women from poverty and need and advance their reality for the better.