A year ago, The National met Yazan Hussein Qassam, a blind nine-year-old boy displaced from Ablin, Zawiya Mountain, in Syria's northern governorate of Idlib.
For three years he had been living in a tent in the Kill refugee camp, one of hundreds of similar camps in northern Syria catering for more than 1.8 million people displaced by conflict.
“I wish for our misery in the tent to end and to have a village for us, the blind,” he said.
A year later, his wish was granted when he moved to Nour Village, a unique charity project established in 2021 which hosts the severely visually impaired and their families.
“Now I go to school every day and learn how to read with Braille”, says Yazan. He was blind at birth and he has never seen light. “I feel good here with my family and friends,” he tells The National.
A charity for Syria's blind
Nour Village is a residential complex in north-west Syria built by Basaier, a Kuwaiti charity, and staffed by the local humanitarian organisation Al Diaa, according to Nour Village's manager Amer Mahmoud Jarad.
Like those he looks after, he is also sightless and manages his work with the Talkback app, an Android programme that helps blind people to use their phones.
The village design currently has 182 apartments, 103 of which are being prepared for new families.
Meanwhile, the charity is applying to continue construction work. The project manager says they have created a system to assess requests to live there based on need, including the number of children in the family and the number of visually-impaired.
“Each family accepted in the project has one blind person or more”, says Amer Jarad.
“There are two kinds of blind people, those blinded by birth and those who lost their sight due to war injuries. For the blind by birth it is easier for them to cope with than those who suffered war injuries”, he adds.
Ahmed Hatem Al Hamid, 29, lost his sight in 2016 after a missile launched by the Syrian regime on his village struck him with shrapnel. “Our village was in the firing line”, says Mr Al Hamid.
Originally from Al Hawash village on the Al Ghab Plain in rural Hama – once the scene of heavy fighting – he is married and has two children. He now lives in Nour Village but says life is still hard because his wife was also seriously injured in the same attack.
Ahmed is the only blind person in his family, but the missile that blinded him also destroyed his wife’s leg, and she now depends on a prosthetic limb to go about her daily life.
Ahmed Habob, 40, has a family of five including his wife and three daughters. Like Yazan, he was blind at birth and lived in the eastern countryside of Shallakh in north-east Idlib until he moved to Nour Village.
“I heard of Nour Village from my wife, we registered and moved to the village after three months”, says Ahmed.
Basic daily needs
“I find life here more comfortable than I do with people who can see,” Nour Village manager Amer Jarad said.
He says most towns in northern Syria hit by 12 years of conflict have no hope of catering to the unique needs of the visually impaired.
“The village is designed to ease life for them. There’s a school, park, market and mosque, but it still lacks an active medical centre,” he says. “The centre is prepared but the work on it has not started yet.”
Different aspects of the village are designed with blind people in mind.
Roads are specially paved to make movement easier for the sightless, and carefully organised so people can make their way around with relative ease. Wall tiles around the village are marked with Braille letters and other aides for navigation.
“I place my hand on the building to recognise its number, our apartment number is nine”, says Yazan. He says he loves living in the village, a place where he can finally find his way around without help, where all apartment doors are marked with Braille.
Ahmed Al Hamid, another village resident, recognises his house by the number four on his door. “The road is paved and it is easy to go around walking. Most of the time I go to the mosque or the market on my own”.
The apartment's tiles have patterns to help blind people live more comfortably in different rooms.
“I can get into the rooms by myself, I find the kitchen and house entrance by touching the tiles”, says Mr Habob.
He says his life has changed for the better since he moved to Nour Village. “My mind has become clearer, especially knowing everyone is blind, like me”.
“We wish there would be monthly financial aid to provide a decent life for the blind”, says Nour Village manager Amer Jarad. Many residents – despite their appreciation and their vastly improved situation, say life is still tough.
“I cannot work. There are lots of things my house lacks and I cannot afford to buy them, we get no financial or food aid”, Ahmed Al Hamid says. “We still need financial aid to raise our kids”, adds Mr Habob.
One hundred families have moved to a place which is safer and more comfortable, but the need is still great as there are more than 3,000 blind people in north-west Syria, according to statistics collected by local aid groups.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
Kill%20Bill%20Volume%201
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Quentin%20Tarantino%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Uma%20Thurman%2C%20David%20Carradine%20and%20Michael%20Madsen%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%204.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Celta Vigo 2
Castro (45'), Aspas (82')
Barcelona 2
Dembele (36'), Alcacer (64')
Red card: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Representing%20UAE%20overseas
%3Cp%3E%0DIf%20Catherine%20Richards%20debuts%20for%20Wales%20in%20the%20Six%20Nations%2C%20she%20will%20be%20the%20latest%20to%20have%20made%20it%20from%20the%20UAE%20to%20the%20top%20tier%20of%20the%20international%20game%20in%20the%20oval%20ball%20codes.%0D%3Cbr%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESeren%20Gough-Walters%20(Wales%20rugby%20league)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EBorn%20in%20Dubai%2C%20raised%20in%20Sharjah%2C%20and%20once%20an%20immigration%20officer%20at%20the%20British%20Embassy%20in%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20she%20debuted%20for%20Wales%20in%20rugby%20league%20in%202021.%0D%3Cbr%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESophie%20Shams%20(England%20sevens)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EWith%20an%20Emirati%20father%20and%20English%20mother%2C%20Shams%20excelled%20at%20rugby%20at%20school%20in%20Dubai%2C%20and%20went%20on%20to%20represent%20England%20on%20the%20sevens%20circuit.%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFiona%20Reidy%20(Ireland)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMade%20her%20Test%20rugby%20bow%20for%20Ireland%20against%20England%20in%202015%2C%20having%20played%20for%20four%20years%20in%20the%20capital%20with%20Abu%20Dhabi%20Harlequins%20previously.%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
