{"id":59372,"date":"2014-09-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-graduate-warwick-native-creates-home-stability-for-syrian-refugees-in-jordan\/"},"modified":"2014-09-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T00:00:00","slug":"uri-graduate-warwick-native-creates-home-stability-for-syrian-refugees-in-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2014\/09\/uri-graduate-warwick-native-creates-home-stability-for-syrian-refugees-in-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 graduate, Warwick native creates home, stability for Syrian refugees in Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tRobert Maroni is country director for Mercy Corps, global relief nonprofit<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 22, 2014 \u2013 Children living in a refugee camp in Jordan go to school, kick soccer balls on a playground and watch movies on a big screen, thanks, in part, to Mercy Corps, a global relief organization with a 溏心vlog免费B站 connection.<\/p>\n


\nRobert Maroni, 50, a 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate who grew up in Warwick, is the nonprofit\u2019s country director in Jordan, where he\u2019s lived for the last four years with his wife and children.<\/p>\n


\nHe and his team of 200 help bring stability to the lives of thousands of Syrians who have fled a horrific civil war that is destroying the country and leaving millions homeless.<\/p>\n


\nMercy Corps helps run two camps in the Jordanian desert: Za\u2019atari, a haven for 85,000 refugees, and Azraq, which has 6,000. They are among the 500,000 refugees in Jordan today.<\/p>\n


\nSo far, the war, in its third year, has killed 190,000 Syrians and left 3 million homeless. The United Nations predicts 4 million could be displaced by the end of 2014, making it the worst exodus since the Rwandan genocide.<\/p>\n


\nAt the height of the war, thousands of Syrians were crossing into Jordan daily. That number has decreased to about 100 to 200 daily, says Maroni, because the Jordanian government took steps to control the border.<\/p>\n


\nMany of the refugees are children, some frustrated and scarred by what they\u2019ve seen: shootings, destruction and terrible human rights abuses.<\/p>\n


\nThe average stay for a family in the camps is 15 years. Most hope to return to Syria when the war ends. \u201cIt\u2019s home,\u201d says Maroni.<\/p>\n


\nAzraq is the newest camp, opened in April. It was designed to give the refugees a better sense of security and community. Families live in steel shelters, instead of tents. The houses are set up in rows resembling streets, so it\u2019s easier to find people.<\/p>\n


\nFamilies are given credit to buy food at grocery stores, which allows them to make choices about what they eat and fosters independence. Every shelter has a gas stove to prepare meals.<\/p>\n


\nPlaygrounds and other areas for kids to hang out provide much-needed support for youngsters and teenagers. The other night, children watched the movie \u201cMr. Bean\u201d \u2013 dubbed in Egyptian-Arabic \u2013 on a big screen. \u201cThey loved it,\u201d says Maroni.<\/p>\n


\nSchools have computers and a gym in Za\u2019atari offers a place to gather and exercise. A welcoming face in the gym is Mohammed Al Karad, Syria\u2019s 32-year-old national wrestling champion and coach. He, too, is a refugee.<\/p>\n


\nMaroni went to Toll Gate High School in Warwick, where he grew up, and graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1987 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology. He ran his own construction company for several years, but longed to work overseas.<\/p>\n


\nIn 1993, he joined the Peace Corps, spending two years in Cameroon and one year in the West Indies. After the Peace Corps, he earned a master\u2019s degree in sustainable international development at Brandeis University.<\/p>\n


\nBy 1997, he was working in Rwanda, rebuilding villages in a country ravaged by genocide. He moved on to Eritrea to coordinate an HIV prevention project.<\/p>\n


\nMaroni joined Mercy Corps in 2004 and, after a stint in Zimbabwe, landed in Jordan with his wife, Nadia al-Alawi, and their two girls, ages 11 and 13. He\u2019s been there four years.<\/p>\n


\nMaroni is uncomfortable talking about himself, preferring instead to focus on the refugees and their courage, reflected in their spirit.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cOur gym is full every day,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nClick here for information about Mercy Corps.<\/a><\/p>\n


\nPhoto above: Robert Maroni, a 1987 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate and Mercy Corps country director for Jordan. Photo courtesy of Robert Maroni.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Maroni is country director for Mercy Corps, global relief nonprofit KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 22, 2014 \u2013 Children living in a refugee camp in Jordan go to school, kick soccer balls on a playground and watch movies on a big screen, thanks, in part, to Mercy Corps, a global relief organization with a University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}