A woman who fled from Syria has transformed her life through cooking in Edinburgh.
Noura Selibi and her husband, Qays escaped from war-torn Syria eight years ago and now has delved into raising money for less fortunate through cooking traditional Syrian dishes.
The Mirror reports that on a cold December night, Noura cooked up a storm in the kitchen of the trendy and colourful Coffee Saints cafe in Edinburgh City Centre. The Syrian Supper Club has been running in Edinburgh for four years thanks to the non-profit organisation Cyrenians - are a charity that fights homelessness in the city.
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Over the years it has grown into a popular event that allows people to some Syrian delicacies that have been cooked by the dynamic husband and wife duo who have made quite the journey to get to Scotland.
Mum-of-four Noura Selibi, 32, had to leave her home in Palmyra, Syria eight year ago, as the civil war in the country made it too dangerous. She has not been back since.
Noura said: "We thought the war would be like two or three months. Now more than ten years on, it is still going."
Since 2011, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria have had to escape the country for countries across the world. Noura and her husband Qays Selibi were two of those people who had to get out. The pair fled to Turkey where she was able to teach Arabic at a school.
Noura explained that she had been a primary school teacher in Syria before the war. She went on: "I still have some aunties and uncles in Syria. I have my kids, my in-laws and my husband with me in Scotland now but my own family went to Qatar as my brother was there."
The couple decided to move to Scotland, after three years in Turkey. This would mean they could be closer to Qays' brother who had been living in the country as a university teacher for some years.
When the family arrived in Scotland under the UK Resettlement Scheme, which sought to re-settle refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war into the UK, they were paired up with a case worker from the council's team.
"She is actually here tonight," Noura said while pointing to her former case worker, Lizzy Treacy, in the Coffee Saints Cafe.
"When we arrived I told them I want to work but I cannot work in schools as I do not have such fluent English.
"But when our case worker used to visit us I would always make food for her and she asked me if I wanted to work with food. I had never thought about this before but I thought, why not?"
With a grandfather as a chef who ran a restaurant, Noura explains how much of an inspiration her grandparents were with cooking.
"I learned a lot from my family. When I was little I could not believe how they could be cooking or boiling so many dishes for so many different people," explained Noura.
From there, the aim was to get Noura to pass a food hygiene course so she would legally be able to work with food but given her lack of fluency in English Lizzy had to think outside the box.
Lizzy said: "Cyrenians were really looking to run a Supper Club with and I knew they do a food hygiene course. So we managed to organise this in Arabic and Noura passed it."
On Noura's new life cooking for the Syrian Supper Clubs, Lizzy looks on like a proud best friend.
"They were the first family I had when I started the job," said Lizzy.
"She is such an inspirational woman."
Cooked by the dynamic husband and wife duo, a number of dishes at the recent Syrian Supper Club contained a number of Middle Eastern delicacies. The Baba Ganoush and flatbread was a big hit for vegetarians, which is a delicacy in that part of the world.
Looking forward, Noura is not sure what the future brings and was hopeful of being able to return to her homeland someday but seems to be enjoying her new fondness for cooking.
"I hope to open a smaller restaurant for me and my husband maybe," said Noura.
"Maybe in ten years I can maybe get back to Syria but it is too difficult now."
Now, the Syrian Supper Clubs are a regular feature of the Cyrenians calendar and Noura will be busy preparing for the next one which is on January 26 at the Coffee Saints Cafe in Edinburgh. Tickets cost £35 for as much of the food as you can eat.
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