{"id":3205,"date":"2017-03-08T12:33:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T17:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/?page_id=3205"},"modified":"2017-04-20T08:11:49","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T12:11:49","slug":"standing-up-for-whats-right","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2017\/standing-up-for-whats-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing Up for What’s Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a kid, Yaman Kawamleh used to fly<\/strong> from the US to Daraa, Syria\u2014his parents\u2019 hometown\u2014every summer. Today, the southern city, consumed by civil war and pummeled by airstrikes, is no place for tourists, but Kawamleh (MSMS\u201917) hasn\u2019t deserted it. He\u2019s the program manager and cofounder of Promise for Relief and Human Development<\/a>, a nonprofit that\u2019s raised millions for underground hospitals and schools, sponsored orphaned children, and donated food baskets and infant formula to besieged families in Syria. Here\u2019s his advice on starting a nonprofit\u2014and making it through the dark times:<\/p>\n

1<\/span> It\u2019s not about you<\/strong> \u201cIf you want to get into this, you have to be committed. My first time to Syria, we had hundreds of jackets. Then, we realized we didn\u2019t have enough for everybody, and when we ran out,\u00a0people\u00a0started getting upset at us. People were yelling at us. We had things thrown at us. But you know what? We had to suck it up; we had to realize that they had gone through so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

2<\/span> Be humble, but stay strong<\/strong> \u201cThese people have lived in this situation far longer than I have, they know more than I do, and I have to respect that. And you have to do that while still being confident enough in what you know. Being humble enough to listen to them, to put yourself in their shoes, yet still being confident to offer your advice, to offer your input, is a really fine balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

3<\/span> You will get it wrong<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s really hard sometimes when it comes to budget allocation, because where do you even start? Do you give your money to the starving family in this city or do you put it in a school? Making a decision is better than making no decision at all, even if it\u2019s wrong. Sometimes you\u2019re going to make the wrong decisions, but you have to learn from what you\u2019ve done and move on. You can\u2019t let it paralyze you.\u201d<\/p>\n

4<\/span> Don\u2019t hide the truth<\/strong> \u201cWe try to be 100 percent transparent with absolutely everything we do. Obviously, sometimes mistakes are made. But you have to realize we\u2019re a humanitarian organization in a war zone. It\u2019s not going to be perfect. We\u2019re honest about our mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

5<\/span> Take care of yourself<\/strong> \u201cI used to translate videos coming from Syria, and I\u2019d send them out to media sources here in America, but eventually all the blood, all the gore got to me. I couldn\u2019t sleep at night anymore. Sometimes you have to take a step back, you have to go back to your life; you have to make sure that your family and your friends are also being taken care of, and that your emotional needs are being met.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a kid, Yaman Kawamleh used to fly from the US to Daraa, Syria\u2014his parents\u2019 hometown\u2014every summer. Today, the southern city, consumed by civil war and pummeled by airstrikes, is no place for tourists, but Kawamleh (MSMS\u201917) hasn\u2019t deserted it. He\u2019s the program manager and cofounder of Promise for Relief and Human Development, a nonprofit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10779,"featured_media":0,"parent":3172,"menu_order":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"story.php","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nStanding Up for What's Right - Questrom Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2017\/standing-up-for-whats-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Standing Up for What's Right - Questrom Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a kid, Yaman Kawamleh used to fly from the US to Daraa, Syria\u2014his parents\u2019 hometown\u2014every summer. Today, the southern city, consumed by civil war and pummeled by airstrikes, is no place for tourists, but Kawamleh (MSMS\u201917) hasn\u2019t deserted it. 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