"There's always this stigma and stereotype about the capability of refugees," Khaled Shaaban tells Arab News.
"I started to think how I can allow people to empower themselves and become resilient."
Shaaban is the founder of Subul, a social enterprise that connects refugees and conflict-affected individuals with employment opportunities in the digital labor market.
With outsourcing as its business model, its goal is to help them achieve success while meeting the needs of international businesses, Shaaban tells Arab News.
Subul pre-launched its latest service, the Impact Hiring Platform, on which 250 individual accounts are already active.
It has resulted in three Syrians finding jobs with a Dutch company, and talks are underway with a Danish company to recruit two others.
"We bridge the gap between the unique talents of refugees and marginalized communities, and the needs of the global tech industry," Shaaban says.
Shaaban, who grew up in Damascus, installed internet satellite devices for hospitals and secured activists' phones against government surveillance during the Syrian revolution in 2011.
After reuniting with his family there, he re-established his IT business, aiming to return to Syria someday.
He quickly realized that it was more important to invest in people instead of infrastructure, so in Istanbul he founded Roia, a non-profit
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Ashoka, a global platform for social innovation, introduced the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Programme (ASEP) to support local social entrepreneurs in scaling up their operations in three key areas – healthcare, environment and women participation for inclusive growth.