Imad Alarnab was a restaurateur in Damascus, Syria, before being forced to flee the country in July 2015. Now he has been given the space to start again.
After a 64-day journey through 10 countries – including nine hours in the back of an estate car boot with seven other refugees – Alarnab made it into the UK 16 months ago and started work as a car salesman.
Now, with the help of Unicef’s NEXT Generation London and pop-up start-up Appear Here, he has been given the chance to cook again in Imad’s Syrian Kitchen – a pop-up on Columbia Road, EC2.
Speaking at a property dinner hosted by Alarnab at his Syrian Kitchen he said: “My journey to get here was not easy. Cycling, walking, boats, trains, car boots… I met Ross through friends. I invited him to dinner and at the end I told him about the cosy, small restaurant I wanted to open. That’s it. A few weeks later he asked me what I was doing on 9 March. Which is when that dream came true.”
Ross Bailey, founder of Appear Here, said: “Our mission when we started this company was to help anyone with a great idea find space to make it happen. To us, Imad fitted that mission.
“We are so touched that someone went through so much to build a great business and then lost it all through no fault of their own. We wanted to help Imad rebuild the life here that he had in Syria.
“To us it was not about London being a place of refuge, it was how we can make London and the UK his new home.”
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