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FEATURES A conversation with Neil Kerwin |
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Marikay Satryano, SIS ’91
Every time they help a child get life-saving cardiac surgery, Marikay Satryano and Rudolph Habesch’s hearts also get a little stronger. Two years ago, Satryano, Habesch, and their partner, Daoud Aboud, founded Gift of Life Amman (GOLA). The nonprofit, based in Jordan, coordinates and finances cardiac surgeries for underprivileged children throughout the Middle East. “We started with two Palestinian girls, Marah and Noor, who live in a refugee camp just north of Amman,” says Satryano. “Were the story to end there, the contribution would have been immeasurable.” That was just the beginning, however. Months after Marah and Noor’s surgeries, GOLA partnered with Gift of Life Indianapolis (another chapter of Gift of Life International) to fund open-heart surgeries for 10 Jordanian and Iraqi children. To date, GOLA, which is funded through private donors, has saved the lives of 15 youngsters, ranging in age from nine months to 15 years. The organization’s goal, says Satryano, is to offer hope in the Middle East to children suffering from congenital heart disease and build peace and understanding among nations worldwide. “The Gift of Life Amman exists on teamwork . . . We are all volunteers coming from different walks of life,” she says. From the moment they are identified as needing help, they become ‘our’ children.” Satryano, a former Rotary scholar, and Habesch met in 2005 at the Rotary Club in Amman. Within minutes of meeting, Satryano—a U.S. Army reservist assigned to the American embassy to coordinate humanitarian assistance for Iraqis—and Habesch—managing director of Heidelberg Jordan, a global printing company—discovered their college connection. “We realized that we are both AU alumni and got along like a house on fire,” says Habesch, a native Jordanian. Soon, the two learned that they shared something else in common: a passion for helping others.
Satryano had just helped launch Operation Iraqi Heart, a Gift of Life International initiative that provides children with cardiac surgery. She sought the help of the Amman Rotary Club to establish a similar program to help youngsters in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Habesch, a former Rotary president, was intrigued. “We felt that it would be great . . . if we applied the same idea to children in Jordan,” he says. The pair also thought they could “use Amman as a hub for cases from other countries in the region.” Two years later, with more children on the waiting list for life-saving surgery, and countless others waiting to be discovered, there’s more work than ever to be done. The AU alums are up to the challenge, though. “The efforts are all worth it when you see a dying child restored to health, the worry and angst of a parent dissolves, and words like ‘school, future, run, and play’ return to [their vocabulary],” says Satryano. —Adrienne Frank continued next page |
