Furniture-makers-Sabry-Khaled0018

Mohamed Awad, 38 years old, also known as Abu Ziad (Ziad’s father). He has been a wood polisher in Damietta since the age of eight, but with increasing debts, the high prices of materials, and his asthma condition, he was forced to close his workshop, quit the trade of his ancestors, and start working as a taxi driver. “I used to make LE4,000 per week, that’s the profit of working six days a week, 12 hours a day. It was enough to cover the costs of the workshop and the workers. I had 12 workers, mostly from the surrounding rural areas. All I cared about was to add up the profit on Thursdays, pay the workers, and take my children for a trip in Ras al-Bar or Port Said. I was carefree.” Due to debt and slow business, he started to lay off his workers one by one. After four months of working alone in his workshop, the debts increased and Awad decided to close. He started working as a taxi driver to pay his debts, which accumulated to the extent that he was unable to pay the instalments on his private car and had to sell it.