Semra decides to make homemade candles while looking for present
20-year-old Palestinian University student Xade Abu Semra set up a small candle workshop in her home stand on her own feet. She decided to make homemade candles while looking for a present for her one of friends. Now, she is a master in making candles. The only problem she has faced is the expensive costs of materials for making candles in Gaza city.
REFÎF ISLÎM
Gaza –Xade Ebû Semra has made candles by turning her house into a small workshop. She makes candles and sells them on her social media accounts. Xade Ebû Semra suddenly decided to make homemade candles. Five years ago, she went out to buy a present for one of her friends. After she couldn’t find a present she wanted, she remembered a video showing how to make homemade candles. She returned to her home and watched the video again. After watching the video, she began to make a candle and she realized that she enjoyed making candles.
“I wanted to make very interesting candles”
After pouring the melted wax into an empty jar to make her molds, she decided to make colorful candles. “I wanted to make very interesting candles, colorful candles, particularly blue, red, and yellow candles. I wanted to bring the colors that I loved together. I melted and mixed them and then I had a beautiful candle,” said Semra.
After learning how to make colorful candles, she decided to make scented candles. Semra told us that making scented candles wasn’t as easy as making colored candles, “I made my first scented candle but it smelled very bad. There are special scents for scented candles and finding them is very difficult.”
“Maybe this is a small project but it makes people feel confident.”
Xade Ebû Semra is a student of Information Technology at Palestinian University. She told us that finding the main materials to make candles is sometimes very difficult for her and for this reason, she sometimes delivers the orders late, “Once, I had to make 200 candles. Actually, I work alone but my mother helped me to make them in time. I burned my hand because I worked very fast.”
Even if Xade Ebû Semra likes making candles, she cannot find the main materials in Gaza and sometimes she finds but they are very expensive. She makes candles to cover her educational costs. She said that all young women should be able to stand on their own feet in order to live independently, “Maybe this is a small project but it makes people feel confident.”