The city of Homs, only 160 kilometers away from the Syrian capital Damascus, was one of the first cities to see the unfolding of the Syrian crisis. After 2014, when rebels agreed to retreat from the city, the war-torn area finally found peace. But the damage of war could not be undone. These days, local people are trying their best to renovate and restore the old city of Homs, back to its days of glory.

This is the newly developed area of Homs. This part of Homs is just like a normal town. But only few blocks away, we found the indescribable image of a war-torn city.
Abo Othman inherited his 100-year-old family shop from his grandfather. During the war, his shop was completely destroyed, amounting to loses of about 250-thousand US dollars. But this year, he reopened his sweet shop in the old market.

"We began to operate and do business during the Easter period. When people first saw my sweet shop reopened, they told me they felt like having a festival, a feeling they hadn't had for the past 4 years. Since our re-opening, the business has been OK. Compared to the beginning of the crisis where no one walked on the streets, the situation is actually improving," said Abo Othman, shop owner of Homs old market.

Abo Othman is not the only one to have returned. There are about 10 to 14 shops that reopened this year under the help of the United Nations Development Program, also known as the UNDP. The UNDP has developed a project with aims to renovate the Old Market within 2 years.

"The project of renovating the Old Market in Homs is divided in four phases, with every phase lasting about six months. The first phase has started. It goes about setting the scheme for the market and renovating the floor and the entrances in addition to the ceiling," said UNDP engineer Amer Omar.

The project itself has created 1500 job opportunities already. And, the UNDP plans to clear 3 market streets in the next 4 months. It is of great significance that the UNDP decided to restore the Old Market before moving on to other locations throughout Homs.

"The historical markets used to be the biggest trading complex in Homs. The market was also the only one of its nature, being the most historic in all of Homs. The place drew lots of attention from many people. We've now removed the rubble and have started renovating the market as a priority," said UNDP engineer Muhammad Rajab.

Now the water supply has returned to some renovated shops, while electricity requires a further two month wait. But the most difficult part is not the infrastructure renovations -- but to bring shop owners and customers back to the market.

"In our UNDP project, we communicated with the commercial chamber and we put out advertisements to call on shop owners to return. We've noticed that some shops reopened in Nouri Street, and that there are about 50 shop owners registered to reopen in the near future," said UNDP engineer Amer Omar.

The confrontation in Homs caused an unprecedented loss of about 200 billion US dollars. The renovation of the Old Market is underway and people simply want to rejuvenate the area. However, no one knows when this will be completed.

"By the efforts of the people and workers here, I hope that Homs will be back to what it was like before. But we cannot estimate the exact time," said Abd-Ar-Rahman Mihini from
UNDP.

The restoration of the Old Market is just the beginning, but as you can see, there still remains a large area of ruin and rubble. The process of bringing back Homs to what it was in the past will surely be a project that takes time.