As of January, people in the Moncton area will be able to get Syrian cuisine home-delivered, thanks to the efforts of Syrian refugee women who are opening their very first catering business in the city.

After selling food at the Dieppe and Moncton markets since July, the 12 women have decided to take their business to the next level.

"I feel we will make a good thing," said Dumoaa Alawaeri, one of the women involved in the business. "It will be success.

"I hope the Canadians, they will like it and I hope we will improve our business."

Positive response

Alawaeri said the women got a positive response from people at the local markets.

"Sometimes I just can't believe how nice they are with us," she said. "They are really happy to try our food and always we have now customers almost every week, who we see them every week, we know them so it's really good."

She said customers would always ask if they delivered and after trying out a couple of deliveries recently, they decided to officially make it part of their business.

The women received help from the Syrian Women's Economic and Social Development Initiative, a non-profit organization started to support the women with starting businesses.

"I could see that they were being marginalized in that there is a lot of focus on helping them get jobs and they really want to get jobs, but just culturally it sort of fell more towards the men so we wanted to help the women to also integrate," said Veronica Carpenter, president of the women's initiative.

Carpenter said the idea to start a booth at the market came during a potluck for the women. She said they raised money for equipment and helped them set up.

Currently, they have started to raise money for the next step, although she said they are well on their way to doing it on their own.

"It's incredible to see them so excited and happy and like in the kitchen," she said. "They play music, they are dancing, they are having a great time, laughing and telling stories and the change from that from arriving in Canada in the dead of winter and really unsure, just having left refugee camps, it's the absolute best thing in the world."

The women are working on a menu for the launch of their catering company.