Jordan Times
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Queen urges Mastabeh residents to undertake more income-generating projects
AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania on Wednesday visited Mastabeh village in Jerash Governorate, where she checked on development and income-generating projects, urging the local community to undertake cooperative ventures that would provide jobs and improve the living standards of residents in the area.
The Queen took a firsthand look at a mushroom production farm in Mastabeh village, home to 9,000 citizens faced with unemployment and poverty.
Al Mastabeh Women's Co-operative which runs the farm, was established in 1999 with the aim of improving the income of its members by establishing income-generating projects for the society.
The cooperative, which started with a capital of JD150, went ahead with their scheme after submitting a project for the production of fresh mushrooms to the Ministry of Planning which offered them JD37,000. The society then rented facilities for mushroom indoor-planting, appointing eight ladies to supervise the project, gather the produce and sell it to the local market.
Queen Rania met with the beneficiaries on ways to enhance their project, provide training and expand their project to include handicrafts to make more jobs available.
The society is now working on increasing its activities by planting wheat, and is also trying to get support from the Ministry of Planning for strawberry production.
The Queen's second stop was at Al Mastabeh Women's Society for Social Development, which benefits 21 families with loans for income-generating projects and easy repayment schemes with the General Union of Voluntary Societies (GUVS).
The society's president briefed Queen Rania on the their plan of starting a dairy plant to help livestock owners market their products.
Established in 1982, the society runs a nursery and a kindergarten. Queen Rania instructed that maintenance be undertaken at both facilities and they be provided with heating, toys and furniture.
Wednesday's visit to Mastabeh, is part of continuous efforts which Queen Rania has embarked on through a comprehensive approach reaching out to citizens and addressing their every need through inspection field visits that aim to improve living conditions of all Jordanians.
During recent field visits, Queen Rania checked on educational and medical facilities in Madaba, Sweimeh and Wadi Al Rayyan in the Jordan Valley, Bani Kinanah district in Irbid, Juweideh and Khreibet Al Souq on the outskirts of Amman as well as Zarqa.