Of le panier du coin, a food store selling natural products, in the centre of beirut. and nour tannir is an architect and stylist, who co founded espacefann, a social enterprise, offering affordable workshops and professional courses in textile design and traditional crafts. welcome, joelle and nour. thank you. thank you, kim. it s great to be here. now, how would you describe your lives prior to the blast? i ll start with you, joelle. prior to the blast, it was an excellent life, so everything was booming, the businesses were booming, even the economy in lebanon was booming. and then, 2019 happened, so we had the financial crisis and then, in 2020, august 4, the big explosion. nour, how would you describe your life prior to that? i would say the same. the same thing. things were going smoothly up until 2019. before the blast, we had some. the banking crisis and the economic crisis here in lebanon, not to mention
Well, ijoined yasmine dabbous, my partner, in 2019. i started my career as an interior architect, working full time in a furniture gallery. but i always felt like i wanted to do more so, at 24 years old, fate had led me to yasmine, join forces with her to expand espacefann, so espacefann is an art and design school. we offer courses for younger talents and more mature talents. and you don t really have to have an art background in order to learn. you canjust come and test it out for yourself. fantastic. now, joelle, i understand you have a network of women artisans and farmers that you use. yes. tell me about that.
All done by women. nour, you also work with a family member, your sister in law. yes. tell me more about your business. sure. well, ijoined yasmine dabbous, my partner, in 2019. i started my career as an interior architect, working full time in a furniture gallery. but i always felt like i wanted to do more so, at 24 years old, fate had led me to yasmine, join forces with her to expand espacefann, so espacefann is an art and design school. we offer courses for younger talents and more mature talents. and you don t really have to have an art background in order to learn. you canjust come and test it out for yourself. fantastic.
Three years on, what is life like for the people who live and work here? i ve come to downtown beirut to meet two women who are working tirelessly to rebuild their city. joelle azar is the owner of le panier du coin, food store selling natural products, in the centre of beirut. and nour tannir is an architect and stylist, who co founded espacefann, a social enterprise, offering affordable workshops and professional courses in textile design and traditional crafts. welcome, joelle and nour. thank you. thank you, kim. it s great to be here. now, how would you describe your lives prior to the blast? i ll start with you, joelle. prior to the blast, it was an excellent life, so everything was booming, the businesses were booming, even the economy in lebanon was booming. and then, 2019 happened, so we had the financial crisis and then, in 2020, august 4, the big explosion. nour, how would you describe your life prior to that?
Member, your sister in law. yes. tell me more about your business. sure. well, ijoined yasmine dabbous, my partner, in 2019. i started my career as an interior architect, working full time in a furniture gallery. but i always felt like i wanted to do more so, at 24 years old, fate had led me to yasmine, to join forces with her to expand espacefann, so espacefann is an art and design school. we offer courses for younger talents and more mature talents. and you don t really have to have an art background in order to learn. you canjust come and test it out for yourself. fantastic. now, joelle, i understand you have a network of women artisans and farmers that you use. yes.