A Syrian refugee in Sicily returns the favor and sews gags to the Italians

The Syrian Muhammad Hassan leaves Aleppo after the bombing intensified in 2016, and the Maqam, his wife and their three children settle in a island in Sicily deep in the Mediterranean, and when the Corona virus began to spread, the refugee journey began to produce masks.

This Syrian refugee, unaware that the closures he experienced in Syria due to the war and the destruction, will pursue him in his new home in Sicily due to the outbreak of the Corona virus (Covid-19), Stefania Delgnoti said in its report in the British newspaper The Independent.

As soon as his travelers and his small family landed in their new home, leaving the house became prohibited except for emergencies, and it became imperative for the people of Sicily - like others in the world - to wear gloves for hands and masks that cover the nose and mouth.

But the increase in demand since the early days of the epidemic has made it difficult for some residents of Sicily to bear the costs of purchasing masks or even finding them in pharmacies.

Sewing machine The
newspaper correspondent who spoke to this Syrian refugee goes on, saying that the circumstances of the pandemic spread made him acquire a sewing machine from one of the commercial centers, and begins to produce handmade masks to be distributed throughout the island that is surrounded by the sea from all sides.

The Independent attributes this Syrian refugee to saying, "This is my own way to thank the people who welcomed me in particular Sicily, and symbolically in all of Italy," adding that "in difficult times it is important to support each other."

The correspondent adds that this 34-year-old Syrian youth had arrived in Sicily in September 2019 out of 1895 asylum seekers chosen in Lebanon since 2016 for the humanitarian corridors, a resettlement program led by “Amal the Mediterranean”, a project It is sponsored by the Italian Protestant Church.

Hassan was not a stranger to the crises that cause ruin in his daily routine, where he was previously kidnapped in Syria, and his parents were forced to pay the ransom, and where he used his hands among the rubble in search of survivors buried amid the remains of collapsed buildings in the bombing, which kept him awake all night in Aleppo .

War economist
Hassan says that he was a tailor before 2011 in a workshop in the old town of Aleppo, and that the war economy forced him to give up his creativity as a car driver.

While in his new home in Sicily, Hassan says that his help to others helps him to endure his internal wounds.

Baby Masks
Good produces about 30 cloth masks that are easy to wash and reuse.

"I have nothing else to offer except for the work of my hand," said Hassan, and Ivana de Stasi, an Italian language teacher, who helped Hassan's children integrate into the local education system, expresses her delight at receiving the first mask that this refugee, made of little to speak and very hard, makes for the sake of Help the community you quietly learn to be a part of.

Hassan produces masks and sewing of all sizes, including those of small children, and his fingers remain moving tirelessly while sewing while returning memory to the days when bombs were falling over their heads in Syria.