COFFEE shop owner Ahmed Alyufrusi, 28, talks about his story, from escaping a Middle East war zone, to opening his coffee shop on Commercial Street. He chats to STEVEN PRINCE.

“I WAS born in Yemen but my family and I moved to the UK when I was around three years old to escape the war that was happening in the region at the time.

My family had nothing on our arrival into the country and we were all living in this one room in Manchester. My mum went off to work to help make the ends meet while caring for her six kids.

After a number of years of finding just enough of everything to survive, my family was able to afford a house and we moved down to Newport as we already had a number of relatives living in the area.

I spent about half a year to a year in the north west of England before coming to Newport. I’ve been here ever since and to me, the city is my home now.

I’ve seen the whole area change and develop over all these years and it is something which I am glad I’ve witnessed.

If I had to go through all those testing times again to end up in the same place as I am now, I would do it all again.

I wouldn’t want to be in any other place in the world than here. I am immensely proud of this area and to say that I live in Newport.

It’s been an adventure to get this far – escaping the war-torn Yemen, struggling for the time in Manchester before coming to Wales.

I know the place inside and out as well as the people too – some absolutely amazing characters.

Back then it became clear to me that I needed to do more to help out my family so even though I was still at school, I started working part-time to be able to contribute.

I was able to get a bit of experience in restaurants and takeaways which help me understand the qualifications I would need to succeed in the industry.

Eventually I met Peter Landers and I owe so much to this man. I even invited him to my wedding and he came all the way over to Yemen for the ceremony.

He gave me an opportunity and took me under his wing but most importantly, he gave me a chance to better myself which is something that I’ll never forget.

I didn’t see it that way at the start though – my younger self saw it as someone telling me what to do and dishing out orders.

But as I grew through my teens, I was becoming more and more responsible and Peter gave me more work as a result.

He trained me and guided me through the hard times when I had no money, no job and no real prospects.

I didn’t know where I was going but he gave me a direction.

It was a matter of luck how I came to meet Peter. I was going to the youth clubs at the YMCA where we started talking and everything went from there.

I can’t work out why, even to this day, he has chosen to invest so much time in me but he’s one of those people who is willing to take a chance on someone.

From there, I then realised that I need to work out for myself where I wanted to go and what career I wanted to take.

My initial idea was to go into the community and get involved in youth matters.

I started off at the YMCA on a part-time contract as a youth worker but as time passed, I got more involved and with other projects.

The recession put an end to that however as a number of provisions for the industry I was in were cut and money became increasingly tight.

So there I was – unemployed again and no idea where to go.

Although money was tight, it was a blessing in disguise as I now had the freedom to pursue any dreams that I had, namely desserts.

My wife loves making desserts and that gave me the idea of turning that into a business in some form or another.

She is a big fan of carrying out tests of her recipes and creations on people.

I was her guinea pig for so many years but then we thought we should try these desserts out on other people.

We took them around a number of restaurants in the area so they could sample the desserts to see if they liked any of it.

The feedback we got was amazing and a number of them started buying our products to sell in their restaurants.

So that was the first time that I considered opening the shop and then after five years of planning, product developing and false dawns, I managed to find the place where my cafe is located today.

I saw a lot of potential in the development as it looked great from the outside and the inside needed a bit of work to bring it up to scratch.

It took nine months of hard work from December last year to September to get this place ready and it has been a labour of love.

That included working through Ramadan when everyone was hungry and the cold as we had no heating to the summer when everyone was making the most of the great weather, I was in here getting the space ready.

It was a real tough time but now the place is open and ready, it was definitely worth all the stress and aggravation – now my life starts for real.

All of this comes from the fact that I just want to provide for my children and I want them to have the life which I didn’t have when I was younger.

But also I’m looking at helping this community especially the younger people who are struggling to find work.

I want to be able to give back and help those who are in a less fortunate position. I’ve been there and I know what it is like and just how tough it is.”