DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Samir al-Baghdad grabbed his pickax and walked up a wobbly set of stairs made of cinderblocks and rubble.
He is rebuilding his destroyed family house in the Qaboun neighborhood near Damascus, Syria 's capital.
The traditional building, which once housed his family, parents and some relatives, had a courtyard decorated with plants and tiled floors where guests were received. But the house, like scores of others nearby, has been reduced to heaps of rubble during years of civil war.
Al-Baghdadi can't afford to hire workers or rent a bulldozer to clear the debris and fix the house. He makes just about enough money as a mechanic to feed his family. But he's desperate to rebuild it because he is struggling to pay skyrocketing rent for an apartment.
"Economic opportunities are basically nonexistent," al-Baghdadi said, sitting on a pile of rubble and debris where the house's entrance used to be. "So we're going to slowly rebuild with our own hands."
Although Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled last month in a lightning insurgency, the country's dire economic conditions that protesters decried have not changed.
The economy has been battered by corruption and 13 years of civil war. Coupled with international sanctions and mismanagement, inflation skyrocketed, pulling some 90% of the country into poverty. Over half the population -- some 12 million people -- don't know where their next meal will come from, according to the U.N. World Food Program.
With no sign of a full-scale withdrawal of international sanctions and continuing caution among potential overseas investors, the honeymoon period for the country's new rulers could be short-lived.
Qaboun, just a stone's throw away from the city center, and other eastern Damascus neighborhoods became rebel strongholds in 2012, when the country's mass protests against Assad spiraled into all-out war.
It suffered government airstrikes and artillery fire, and at one point Islamic State group extremists. In 2017, government forces reclaimed the neighborhood, but when al-Baghdadi tried to return in 2020, security forces kicked him out and forced him to sign a pledge to never return, saying it was a security zone that was off limits.
After Assad's fall, al-Baghdadi was finally able to return. Like many, he was euphoric and hoped it would pave the way for better times despite the many challenges that lay ahead, including rampant power cuts and fuel shortages.
For years, Syrian families have relied on humanitarian aid and remittances from family members living abroad to survive. On top of the gargantuan costs of rebuilding the country's destroyed electricity, water and road infrastructure, money is needed to restore its battered agriculture and industrial sectors to make its hobbled economy productive again.
The United Nations in 2017 estimated that it would cost at least $250 billion to rebuild Syria. Some experts now say that number could reach at least $400 billion.
Wealthy Gulf countries have pledged to build economic partnerships with Syria's new interim rulers, while Washington has eased some restrictions without fully lifting its sanctions. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a six-month license authorizing some transactions with Syria's interim government. While it includes some energy sales, Syrians say it isn't enough.
Sinan Hatahet, an economic researcher at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank, said the U.S. actions were the "bare minimum" needed to show good faith to Damascus and aren't enough to help Syria jumpstart its economy.
"It doesn't help the private sector to engage," Hatahet said. "The restrictions on trade, the restrictions on reconstruction, on rebuilding the infrastructure are still there."
While countries are hesitant to make more impactful decisions as they hope for a peaceful political transition, many Syrians say the economy can't wait.
"Without jobs, without huge flows of money and investments ... these families have no way of making ends meet," Hatahet said.
The executive director of the World Food Program echoed similar sentiments, warning Syria's neighbors that its food and economic crisis is also a crisis of security.
"Hunger does not breed good will," Cindy McCain said in an interview during her first visit to Damascus.
In the Syrian capital's bustling old marketplace, crowds of people pack the narrow passageways as the country's new de facto flag is draped over the crowded stalls. Merchants say the atmosphere is pleasant and celebratory, but nobody is buying anything.
People stop to smell the aromatic and colorful spices or pose for photos next to masked fighters from the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group guarding the market's entrances.
"We're very happy with our liberation, thank God, but there are few jobs," said Walid Naoura, who works with his father at a clothing shop. "Yes, we've been relieved of thuggery and oppression, but all these people here have come to celebrate but not to buy anything because things are expensive."
Nearby, Abou Samir, a carpenter, saws a piece of wood as he assembles a chest of drawers. There is no electricity to power his machinery, so he's doing it by hand.
"I'm working at a loss ... and you can't make larger workshops work because there is no electricity," he said.
His sons live abroad and send money to help him get by, but he refuses to stop his carpentry work which has been his livelihood for 50 years.
In Qaboun, al-Baghdadi sips tea on a makeshift porch overlooking his neighborhood, which has turned into empty plots and a gathering point for local buses and minivans. It was a successful day because he managed to connect an electric cable to power a single light bulb -- but part of his roof collapsed.
He still hasn't been able to secure running water but hopes that he and his family can move into the house with its many memories before summer, even if it is far from completion because of his financial situation.
"I prefer that to living in a palace elsewhere," al-Baghdadi said.
