DAMASCUS -

"I sit here on the sidewalk every day, from early morning hours until dusk, selling 10 to 15 bundles of bread to be able to buy some essential needs for me and my children, such as food, medicine (...) and so on."

With these words, Um Zuhair (43 years old) - displaced from Albukamal (eastern Syria) to the countryside of the capital, Damascus - describes her daily suffering to earn a living after the death of her husband during the battles in the Syrian war that broke out about 12 years ago.

The forty-year-old woman and her son (9 years old) sleep on a sidewalk in the center of the capital, Damascus, to sell bread to passers-by, who are unwilling or unable to line up for long hours in line for bread.

Umm Zuhair told Al-Jazeera Net, "What troubles me most about my work is the severe cold at this time of the year. My son had acute bronchitis a week ago, and I was unable to work for days because of that."

In addition to the severe cold, Umm Zuhair complains about the lack of financial return for her work.

She can barely earn 8 to 12,000 pounds ($1.2 to $1.8) per day.

Which is enough for "a modest meal of vegetables, grains and bread that my family (4 members) eat in the evening."

4 years ago, Umm Zuhair became the sole breadwinner for her family of 3 children, the eldest of whom is 9 years old.

Like this forty-year-old woman, Syrian women are forced to engage in strenuous work that is harmful to physical and psychological health, and others that do not fit the age of some of them, amid the worst living and service crisis the country has witnessed since the outbreak of the conflict in March 2011.

A woman and a man collect plastic from garbage bins in Damascus (Al-Jazeera)

work or hunger

In addition to selling bread on the streets, women in Damascus and its countryside resort to "collecting plastic" from the streets, public places, and garbage containers to support their families.

Maha (37 years old), a resident of Eastern Ghouta in the Damascus countryside, has been working with her 8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter to collect plastic waste from garbage bins, roads and gardens in Damascus for two years.

Maha tells Al-Jazeera Net that this work alone is able to support her and her children. Collecting plastic guarantees her an acceptable daily income compared to other businesses that are not sufficient to rent "a pile of stones in which we live," as she put it.

Maha gets paid 7 thousand pounds (about one dollar) for every 10 kilograms of plastic that she and her children can collect, and her family collects between 20 and 30 kilograms per day.

Maha adds, "We have hated our lives because of the smell of dirt that does not leave our noses throughout the day, but either this work or we die of hunger."

The most heartbreaking thing for Maha is her two children's failure to attend school for the third year in a row. While the 11-year-old girl is somewhat good at reading and writing, her 8-year-old brother is completely illiterate.

Mothers in Damascus and its countryside are forced to allow their sons and daughters to leave school (drop out) to work and support themselves under the weight of stifling living conditions, lack of support, and absence of a breadwinner.

The Minister of Education in the government of the Syrian regime, Darem Tabbaa, revealed - last November - that the school dropout rate amounted to 22% of the total number of students in the compulsory education stage in the areas controlled by the regime.

A queue to buy bread in the Syrian capital, Bab Touma area (Al-Jazeera)

Health risks

The factories for the production of detergents and peeling potatoes, which are widely spread in the cities of the Damascus countryside, provide the most job opportunities for women in the areas controlled by the regime.

Working hours in most of these laboratories start at seven in the morning and do not end until nine in the evening, with one hour of rest interspersed.

Maysa, 25, a worker in a detergent production factory in the Damascus countryside, says that the wages of women working in the factory on a part-time basis (7 hours) amount to 110,000 Syrian pounds ($17) per month, while the wages of women working full-time are (13 hours). to 225,000 pounds ($35).

And the newly married twenty-year-old girl added to Al-Jazeera Net, "I need this job to support my husband with expenses and rent for the apartment. I tried to work part-time, but it was not enough to support us, but today I am full-time and I do not find time to cook or take care of the house or my husband. I return exhausted, and I do not see in front of me Only a bed to sleep in. In the end, by the middle of the month, I won't have a pound of salary left with me."

A woman collecting plastic from garbage in Damascus (Al-Jazeera)

In addition to constant exhaustion, Maysa suffers from an allergic cough, whose seizures wake her up at night due to its strength, and she says, "The doctor explained to me that the materials that I smell daily in the laboratory are toxic, and that I must leave work or wear a mask tightly while filling or mixing materials."

Despite Maysa taking her medication and wearing a mask over her mouth and nose while working, she still suffers from coughing attacks that surprise her from time to time.

A United Nations report for the year 2021 indicates that 22% of Syrian families are headed by women, due to the loss of many families of their male breadwinners.