On the occasion of Workers’ Day: Profile of Shama Shaaban, a women farmer from the Bekaa

As Safir newspaper published a report and a portrait of Shamma, a farmer who works the fields of Fayda in Zahle, and in middle and west Bekaa, and also works in sorting and packaging products in the internal Hangars. Shamma narrated to As Safir her life story as she started working in her beloved Bekaa valley more than 30 years ago, a time that she has spent amidst the potato, garlic, onion and orchards fields in addition to tending to rose plants and other decorative plants.  Shamma has been working in the flower nurseries of Suleiman Samaha in Shtaura for more than ten years now.  Along with other girls, they tend to the rose shrubs and the vineyards.  She also arranges flowers and has been doing almost everything at the nursery.  She noted that when she walks amongst the trees, she feels as if they communicate with her and she can feel thirsty whenever they are thirsty so she brings them water and arranges them. Shamma says that she is not ashamed of her work which she started very early on in her life at the expense of a lost childhood.  However, she does not want to deprive her children from their childhood and thus, she works to secure their livelihoods.
Source: Al-Safir 2 May 2014