{"id":256097,"date":"2019-09-05T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=256097"},"modified":"2019-09-04T20:27:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T23:27:59","slug":"syrian-arrived-as-a-refugee-and-got-a-doctorate-from-ufrj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/syrian-arrived-as-a-refugee-and-got-a-doctorate-from-ufrj\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian arrived as a refugee and got a doctorate from UFRJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The first doctorate thesis on environmental engineering of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (URFJ<\/a>) was submitted by a Syrian. In fact, Mohammad Najjar may already be regarded as a Brazilian too. \u201cThis is our country now. On August 29, last week, I got my ID! We\u2019re Brazilians now,\u201d stated he, who came to Brazil with his family in 2015.<\/p>\n

Najjar was born in Latakia, Syria where he grew up and got his degree in architecture from Tishreen University. He also met his wife there, the economist Hind Zeitouneh, and married and had Nancy, now 7, and Khaled, 5 (pictured above<\/em>). After getting his master\u2019s degree in London, Najjar worked in his own architecture office and as a professor at a Syrian university. \u201cUntil the war started and, by 2015, I had to get out of the country. A great wave of kids abduction. My wife and I couldn\u2019t imagine a life without them,\u201d he told ANBA.<\/p>\n

Our family\u2019s first destination was Malaysia, where we spent two months. From there, our family examined our options and saw Brazil as a possibility of a safer migration. \u201cBrazilian law helped a lot, because you could just get a visa and arrive at the airport, it was much safer to arrive as a refugee. We had neighbors in Syria, a family that decided to go to Germany, but both wife and the kids died on the beach. I didn\u2019t want to repeat that. We were terrified to lose our family. And Brazil gave us that security,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Visas on hand, the family arrived in Rio de Janeiro, where they live now. To legalize his status as a refugee, Najjar appealed to C\u00e1ritas<\/a>, a humanitarian organization that operates in that state. With a connection at the institution, he was invited to give interviews to the Rio press. \u201cA group of professors at UFRJ watched it and asked to meet me. Almost everything happed during my fist week. I\u2019ve met them and they supported me. Lu\u00eds Ot\u00e1vio is always by my side and my family\u2019s. He is like brother in Brazil,\u201d he said referring to professor Lu\u00eds Ot\u00e1vio Cocito Ara\u00fajo at the Civil Construction Department of Technology Center of UFRJ.<\/p>\n

Doctor in environmental engineering<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ara\u00fajo introduced him to another professor, Assed Haddad, who later became Najjar supervisor. His new friends taught the parents Portuguese and helped the children get a scholarship at a carioca school. In May 2016, UFRJ opened selection for a doctorate in Environmental Engineering. Encouraged by his Brazilian friends, Najjar applied. \u201cThey actually pushed me. They said: \u2018you should do it, you have a master\u2019s degree in London, a diploma in Syria.\u2019 I applied and passed in every phase,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mohammad Najjar besides his Brazilian friends and family on the day he became a doctor<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The thesis he submitted last July featured a partnership between UFRJ and New South Wales University in Australia. \u201cWe published several articles. The thesis is on the life cycle of buildings and the calculation of energy consumption in overall civil construction. Sustainability is an international matter. We need to think on the future of energy, how we apply or set up renewable energy sources, solar panels, all this stuff,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Now a doctor, the Syrian has already developed his postdoctoral research at the same university and prepares to publish a book with other professors from UFRJ and Australia. In parallel, he teaches Architecture at another foundation. \u201cI intend to build up a strong curriculum. Ours thesis is international and the examiners\u2019 board had six professor, two being foreigners,\u201d Najjar said on the possibility of working with foreign universities and perhaps conducting part of his postdoc in Australia.<\/p>\n

Brazil is now our country<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the doctorate, his first learning experience was much more basic: the language. \u201cI started speaking Portuguese in a very funny manner. Our children were our first teachers in the language. They used to correct our words. Until recently, my daughter would have to go buy groceries with me, since her Portuguese was much better than mine,\u201d he said. Besides Nancy and Khaled, the couple has yet another daughter. Maria Lionela was born in Brazil. \u201cWe arrived in a country where we had no relatives. But now I have a great non-blood family, my friends,\u201d Najjar said.<\/p>\n

The family now tries to become financially established in their new home. Zeitouneh is also trying to get back to the job market and teaches English in a private school. \u201cFrom 2015 to 2017, we managed to learn it all. My wife and I, together. She is thinking on studying pedagogy. Our plan is to stay in Brazil and that depends on the kind of job and our income. We don\u2019t think about leaving, even if the war ends. I left all our possessions in Syria. This is a clean slate. And we just want to earn enough to sustain our family and nothing more than that,\u201d Najjar said.<\/p>\n

The doctor now says that he is open to work whether as a professor or an architect, his main interest areas, now in the country where he\u2019s rebuilding his life. \u201cMy idea is always create a pretty strong resum\u00e9. And look for a job with a good income to sustain all of my family,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Contact info<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mohammad Najjar: mnajjar@poli.ufrj.br<\/a><\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

C\u00e1ritas\/RJ<\/div>\n
C\u00e1ritas\/RJ<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mohammad Najjar graduated with the first thesis on Environmental Engineering of the Polytechnic School of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2324,"featured_media":256074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[10426,9534,11051,11047,11048,11043,11049,11052,9584,9611,2269,11050,11053],"class_list":{"0":"post-256097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-university-en","9":"tag-brazil-en","10":"tag-caritas-en","11":"tag-doctor","12":"tag-doctorate","13":"tag-doutor","14":"tag-environmental-engineering","15":"tag-mohammad-najjar-en","16":"tag-refugee-en","17":"tag-syria-en","18":"tag-syrian","19":"tag-thesis","20":"tag-urfj-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Mohammad Najjar graduated with the first thesis on Environmental Engineering of the Polytechnic School of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}