ALEPPO, SYRIA (AFP) – The ancient bathhouses of Syria’s second city Aleppo are filling up again, not because of a revived fad, but due to power cuts that have made hot showers a luxury.

“We mainly rely on electricity to heat water at home, but the electricity is cut off most of the time,” said Mohammed Hariri from a crowded bathhouse where he had waited half an hour for his turn.

“Here, we take all the time we need showering,” the 31-year-old told AFP.

With their marble steam rooms, hexagonal fountains and distinctive domes, Aleppo’s bathhouses have for centuries served as a social hub where men come together to wash, listen to music and even eat.

But shortages of water, fuel and electricity across war-torn Syria have also turned them into a refuge for those looking for a long, warm bath during the cold winter.

In Hammam al-Qawwas, one of more than 50 traditional bathhouses in Aleppo’s Old City, diesel fuel and firewood are used to power furnaces providing hot water and steam.

Under its arched dome, men swaddled in towels sit in one of many side rooms, some singing traditional Arabic tunes as they scoop up hot water from stone basins.

In an adjoining area, masseurs use soap and loofahs to scrub clean clients lying flat on the marble floor, as restrictions against the coronavirus pandemic seem a world away.

BRISK BUSINESS

Hariri said he used to visit Aleppo’s bathhouses with his father and uncles as a child.

Now, he comes with his son – not to continue a tradition, but because the water at home is not enough for his family of five.

“At home you have to shower in five minutes, but at the bathhouse you can stay for five hours,” he said.

Many of the structures were severely damaged during several rounds of battles between regime forces and rebels.

Only around 10 have re-opened since Aleppo returned to full government control in 2016, according to AFP correspondents.

Sitting at the reception room inside Hammam al-Qawwas, Ammar Radwan fielded calls from clients looking to book an appointment.

The 33-year-old who inherited the 14th-Century bathhouse from his grandfather said he never thought business would bounce back.

“We re-opened the hammam in 2017, after the battles in Aleppo ended, but we never expected to see such a turnout,” he told AFP while updating a client register.

Among the bathhouse’s regular customers is Jalal al-Helou, a 53-year-old father of three.

“I go to the bathhouse at least once a month for a good clean,” he told AFP from inside a washing room, a towel covering his wet body.

‘NECESSITY’

Like most of Aleppo’s residents, Helou usually has to make do with cold or lukewarm water at home.

Round-the-clock power cuts have reached 20 hours a day this year due to severe diesel fuel shortages.

Helou said he has sometimes had to resort to firewood instead of the electric water heater so his family can bathe.

“Our priority is to provide (hot water) for the children,” he said.

The situation is the same for fellow bathhouse patron Nader Mashlah.

“The last time I took a proper bath was two weeks ago,” the 58-year-old said after a scrub-down at the hammam.

At home, “priority goes to the children, and if there is some hot water left, my bath is quick and unsatisfying”, he added.

A government employee and father of six, Mashlah said he could afford few comforts in his own home.

But in the bathhouse, he was relaxing and smoking shisha across from a large fountain as other clients walked by.

“In the past, going to the bathhouse was mainly for entertainment,” he said in between puffs.

“Today, it has become a necessity at least once or twice a month.”

Michael Theis

AP – On GivingTuesday, officials at New Jersey-based healthcare charity Sostento learned they would receive a donation of roughly USD58,000 by the end of the week.

The donation was unlike any the nonprofit had received before. It was derived from the proceeds of the sale of a nonfungible token (NFT) for a digital artwork called The NFT Guild Philanthropist – Healthcare Heroes.

You’ve likely heard of NFTs. They’re built on the same technology that underlies digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These digital assets shot into the limelight in March after Mike Winkelman, known by his artist moniker Beeple, auctioned off an NFT for USD69 million at Christie’s. Think of an NFT as a deed or token associated with a work of digital art, like an image, an audio recording, or a video.

That token can be used to keep track of the file’s provenance and sale history, allowing someone to prove ownership of the asset.

While the technology was created to give artists more control over their work, NFTs have spawned a frenzy as collectors look to cash in. As that speculation intensifies, a growing number of charities have begun to explore fundraising efforts tied to NFTs. Although some NFT charity auctions have yielded eye-popping sums, others have had limited success. Complicating matters, NFTs use new technologies that are generating lots of questions for accountants and regulators.

The “Guild Philanthropist” NFT sold for 6.3 Ethereum, the equivalent of roughly USD28,000. The artist provided a donation to match the sale price.

For Sostento, accepting the donation was fairly simple. The organisation worked with Giving Block, a non-profit that helps other charities accept cryptocurrency, to convert the crypto into US dollars. The NFT will also continue to benefit charities in the future. It was created with a provision that obliges proceeds of future sales to be given to charity.

But there is still a steep learning curve associated with NFTs and cryptocurrency, said Chief Executive Officer Joe Agoada of Sostento, which develops software and communication products for the healthcare industry.

Accountants advising Sostento cautioned against accepting NFTs and other cryptocurrency directly. Working with an intermediary to convert the NFT proceeds from ones and zeros to dollars and cents was crucial.

“It took a long time to understand how we could actually make this possible,” said Agoada.

Sostento wasn’t the only group to see a windfall from these novel tokens last week. Officials at Giving Block said they helped process roughly USD1 million in charitable donations on GivingTuesday derived from the proceeds of NFT auctions. And on December 7, Giving Block will launch the inaugural NFTuesday, a day focussed on driving more NFT-derived philanthropy.

Some non-profits have entered the NFT fray as a way to reach a broader audience.

In July, officials at Save the Chimps, a chimpanzee refuge in Fort Pierce, Florida, scanned finger paintings done by three of its residents: Cheetah, Clay, and Tootie.

From those scans, they created a series of NFTs and listed them for auction on Truesy, an NFT marketplace.

Think of them like prints of a photograph. They were priced to sell at a value equivalent to about USD25. Save the Chimps set up its NFT to provide a royalty to the charity in the event of future sales.

The fundraising haul so far? Just a few hundred dollars.

“The exciting part was they were all first-time donors,” said the group’s Marketing Director Sara Halpert.

That’s the appeal for many charities that have started to dabble in the world of NFTs and, more broadly, cryptocurrency.

These collectors and investors could be a valuable new audience for fundraisers to tap, said Giving Block CEO Pat Duffy. They tend to be richer-than-average, financially savvy younger donors who are very active online.

“These are people a major-gifts officer should be connecting with and talking to,” said Duffy.