A refugee’s journey from a war zone to helping Australia’s Paralympians

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By the time the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Samer Zakhour’s workshop in Damascus was already overwhelmed with clients. The war in neighbouring Iraq had forced millions to flee, many to the Syrian capital where Zakhour, then in his late 20s, worked as a prosthetics technician.

Bombs, which had once felt far away and the cause of the countless injuries Zakhour tended to, were now falling around him. He began working through the night as more people needed his help, sleeping for a few hours in his workshop before continuing to build prosthetics for the injured.

Samer Zakhour with two moulds made for Australian paralympic hopefuls. Also pictured is an Australian flag and pink cockatoo that a friend bought Zakhour when he received Australian citizenship.

With hundreds of thousands of civilians killed during the civil war, and many more injured, there are too many patients for Zakhour, now 43, to remember. Although, one stands out: a little girl who had been in her primary school playground when a bomb fell. She was left in the rubble with both her legs shattered, leaving her a double amputee.

“It took her two hours just to show me the legs,” Zakhour said.

The girl had been too shy to reveal the extent of her injuries and too nervous to look at her own legs. Slowly, she warmed to him. Zakhour fitted her prosthetic legs with sneakers and watched the girl’s spirits brighten.

“After we do checks of it and [she did her] first steps, she feels, ‘I come back to life, I come back to play’,” he said.

But the girl was one of many, and the number of patients, like the bombs, was increasing. Zakhour began to worry about his wife and two children. Like many, he was torn between staying to continue his work and fleeing. Soon, the answer became obvious.

“I want to save my family,” he recalled thinking.

Zakhour and his family arrived in Australia 10 years ago as refugees, leaving their lives behind. Zakhour was resigned to never working as a prosthetist again, assuming he’d never get a job if he couldn’t speak English. Instead, he started playing guitar in bands in Sydney to pick up some extra cash.

One day, Zakhour arrived at TAFE, where he’d enrolled to learn English. He sat down at one of the desks and was shocked to find an old friend, Linda, sitting next to him. He used to make Linda’s prosthetic arms in Damascus, but hadn’t seen her in the five years since the war broke out, as she too had fled to save her family.

“When I came to Australia, I met her,” Zakhour said. “Not just Australia or Sydney or Blacktown or TAFE [but in the] same class [at the] same table.”

She told him about her new prosthetist in Sydney at Northmead’s ForMotion Clinic (then known as APC prosthetics), and told him to come with her to her next appointment. There, Linda introduced Zakhour to the technicians and he told them about his career in Syria.

“I’m coming to a new country, to a new life, everything, but please I love the job. I’m happy just to clean up, just let me clean up the workshop,” Zakhour remembers thinking.

The clinic gave Zakhour a trial. Although it was only supposed to be for a few hours, he was asked to stay longer.

“I prayed for this,” he said of being back in the workshop. “I smelled the chemical, [it] smelled [like] home.”

Before long, his three-month contract turned into a permanent role.

Lauren Parker skiing in Canada in December using Samer Zakhour’s prosthetics.

“He pretty much runs this whole tech shop,” prosthetist clinician George Maimoun said. “He’s got all the experience. His entire initial place of work was with not a lot of tools or materials or nothing, so they made it work. It’s just all up here [his brain] for him.”

Now an Australian citizen and affectionately known in the workshop as “Sammy”, Zakhour creates the prosthetics used by several members of Australia’s Winter Paralympic team. It started with para-biathlete Dave Miln, then word spread to teammate Matt Brumby and finally to Lauren Parker.

Each athlete has different requirements but all of them are competing in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Paralympic Games in the biathlon, which involves cross-country skiing and target shooting. They are the first Australians to qualify in the event in 20 years.

To build the prosthetics, Zakhour creates a mould using a bean bag filled with styrofoam balls that are vacuum sealed around the shape of the athlete. He has to balance making the prosthetics light for racing, but strong enough so they are safe – it’s a creative job that involves solving problems.

“When I go to bed, the ideas start coming,” he said.

Zakhour’s background in conflict zones means he can work quickly and under pressure. That experience is helpful when Zakhour has to make the athletes’ prosthetics during the short windows between international competitions. For Parker, Zakhour had 10 days to make the seat she’ll race in at the Games.

“It fits me so well,” Parker said. “I was a bit worried because I hadn’t been on snow with it until it arrived in Canada. I had to race with it either way, if it didn’t fit me properly or if it did fit me properly, so I’m lucky that I felt really comfortable in it.”

Zakhour watches videos of Parker skiing in Canada on Instagram and when he and his wife go to the shops, he points out the photo of Milan on Paralympics Australia posters. Although he hasn’t been a citizen for long, Zakhour’s prosthetics will give Australia a shot at making the podium at the Games.

“I like to do normal prosthetics, but this is special,” Zakhour said. “For us, nothing’s impossible. For anyone who wants to do anything, we can help them.”

The Winter Paralympic Games is broadcast on the Nine Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.