CLEAN START, FREE OF WAR
Walid Balsha, left, Husny Hadry and Abdul Fatah Sabouni have opened the Aleppo Savon soap shop in Calgary. All three men left Syria to build new lives in Canada.
When it came to his first entrepreneurial venture as a new Canadian, Abdul Fatah Sabouni never had a doubt about what he would do.
“I am fourth generation — making soap has been our family business for more than 125 years,” says the 40-year-old father of four. “Even my last name, Sabouni, means soap maker.”
Just a couple of years ago, though, he more than doubted whether or not he’d be given another opportunity to ply the craft he knows and loves so well.
In 2015, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military dropped warnings to residents to vacate his home city of Aleppo. Fearing for his family’s safety, and weary of the sounds of bombs and gunfire, Sabouni and his loved ones had already joined the more than seven million Syrians desperately trying to escape the madness, first making their way to Jordan.
Two years after they landed safely on Canadian soil, thanks to help from the federal government, the gregarious father is proudly showing off the showroom and factory for Aleppo Savon (alepposavon.ca), his new business.
On Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m., Sabouni and his partners, Walid Balsha and Husny Hadry, will welcome local dignitaries, as well as the general public at the grand opening of the store, located at 1303 Hastings Cres. S.E.
On Friday, the trio offers a sneak peek of the venue, which has giant stacks of colourful soaps, stacked up Jenga-game style, along with walls of soaps offering up everything from lemon and lavender-scented bars to unscented.
“Come to try it, to smell it, to touch it,” says Sabouni, who served a 10-year apprenticeship under his father before taking over the family business. “I guarantee you’ll love it.”
While he may have to do a sales pitch for the average Calgarian, those in the know understand that having a master Syrian soapmaker in our city is a major coup.
The centuries-old tradition of Aleppo soap-making — which uses no chemicals or other additives — often involves secret family recipes handed down through the generations. In the 11th century, the Crusaders brought the soap back to Europe, starting a centuries-long love affair with the coconut and olive-oil based soap said to be intensely moisturizing. It is also said to have been the inspiration for the equally famous Marseille soap of France.
As the Syrian war heated up, though, many of those soap-makers fled for their lives, and many of the factories in Aleppo were either destroyed or abandoned. It created a worldwide Aleppo soap shortage that warranted newspaper headlines in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Japan, where it is highly coveted.
When he arrived in Calgary two years ago, Sabouni threw himself into learning English, his entrepreneurial dreams never far from his thoughts. He met Balsha at English class; like Sabouni, the 58-year-old newcomer yearned for something better than his new delivery driver job in Calgary.
“Walid was a businessman in Syria too,” says Sabouni. “He had his own tire business in Damascus.”
The two teamed up with Hadry, a Syrian who came to Canada in 1994 as a 10-year-old. Hadry, who works as a system administrator with a local seismic company, helps them navigate the business ins-and-outs of their adopted country and also translates English to Arabic when the two have challenges with their new language.
“They bring a lot, because their experience adds up,” says Hadry, who also credits Calgarians Saima Jamal and Sam Nammoura, co-founders of the Syrian Refugee Support Group and Calgary Immigrant Support Society, with helping them set up business and get the word out.
“We have big plans for distribution across Canada and North America.”
For Sabouni, making the world-famous soap, also thought to be the world’s oldest, is his way of giving back to a city and country that has given him and his family so much.
“Canada and Canadians gave us a second chance,” he says with a wide smile. “This is my life and this is my job — I like to make soap.”