Clothing store provides newcomer's family with 'new life'

Saddam Debduk can still smell the fields he tended back home in Syria. Looking out the window of his clothing store on Wyandotte Street East, he daydreams he's again working with the sick plants, nurturing them back to health.

His reveries are broken by the chatter of customers coming in and out, perusing the colourful clothes in the shop he and his wife opened a year ago, six months after arriving in Windsor from a sprawling refugee camp in Turkey, where they sought refuge from the turmoil in their native Syria.

Conditions were rough and crowded in the camp, located in the desert near the border with Iraq. It was oppressively hot in the summer and cold in the winter, with snows so heavy they collapsed the thin tents in which they sheltered.

"All the people in the camp just thinking about a roof," recalls Debduk through a translator. "We couldn't dream for anything else, just a roof."

There were no fields for Debduk to till in Turkey so he saved up his money, bought some clothing and opened a small store in the camp. He followed the same recipe for success when he arrived in Windsor and opened the Alsham Market on Wyandotte. He and his wife barely knew English but they knew they needed to survive and eke out a living to support their seven children.

"We open that business to get resources of money and didn't want to depend on the government's money," says Debduk, combing through jackets hanging on a rack. "This business gives us a new life."

Debduk's wife, Reca, who is expecting the couple's eighth child, also works in the shop.

"Everyone comes into buy clothes," she says proudly through a translator. "Even Canadians like our clothing."

Learning English has been one of the biggest obstacles for the couple. Debduk had to rely on a translator to square away the paperwork to open his business. He takes English classes but finds he learns more quickly interacting with customers.

"We are determined and patient," says Reca. "I like the people and this store helps communicate with other people."

Debduk still misses the farm but finds comfort by driving into the heart of Essex County and admiring the fields.

"In Syria, we can't sleep," he says. "At least we can sleep when we come to Canada. We have freedom, we have everything here."