Jordan Times
Thursday, May 6, 2004
Queen urges residents of
Northern Mazar villages to undertake more income-generating projects
By Rami Abdelrahman
IRBID — Her Majesty Queen Rania stressed the role of civil society in creating
employment opportunities in line with the needs and capabilities of local
communities to raise their standard of living.
During a visit to Deir Yousef village in Irbid Governorate yesterday, the Queen
inaugurated a community development project of the Society for the Development
and Rehabilitation of Rural Women's (SDRRW) only northern branch. The society
aims to empower women to raise their living conditions and participate in
decision making in development planning.
The project currently employs 25 women who sew and embroider traditional women's
thobes representing the Kingdom's different governorates, which are mostly sold
in Amman.
The SDRRW also has a productive kitchen where 30 fresh school graduate trainees
get a monthly stipend of JD80 to make sweets for occasions, sandwiches for
schoolchildren, and traditional dishes for feasts.
In addition, the project is raising computer literacy in the area by training
residents on basic computer skills. It also gives financial aid to impoverished
families and students and helps the community start home gardens and water
harvesting projects.
At a meeting with Deir Yousef residents, the Queen expressed admiration for the
quality of their products.
“The marketing mechanisms of such products should be enhanced to achieve better
distribution,” the Queen told the women.
The SDRRW was established in Amman in 1990 and has another rural branch in Wadi
Musa in Maan Governorate.
The Queen also visited a nursery and a kindergarten providing preschool
education to 75 children, where six-year-old Hassan Omari told the Queen how he
and his classmates learn the alphabet and basic language skills on the computer.
The nursery functions under the umbrella of the Deir Yousef Charitable Society,
which was established in 1968 and has 120 members.
Earlier in the village of Juhfieh, Queen Rania visited the town's only high
school for girls where 329 students receive primary and secondary education.
Established in 1966, the Juhfieh Girls High School lacks a heating system, good
lighting, specialised science labs, projectors, and needs more classrooms to
make different high school streams available for students.
Queen Rania toured the school, talking to the schoolgirls and asking them about
their plans for the future and how they are planning to achieve their goals.
Before heading back to Amman, she checked on a 70-year-old woman, and her
partially disabled son, a father of 10 children who is unemployed. Both
households survive on JD30, which they receive as a monthly allowance from the
National Aid Fund.
Wednesday's visit to villages in Northern Mazar 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 field visits that aim to
improve living conditions of all Jordanians.
During recent field visits, Queen Rania checked on educational and medical
facilities in Ajloun, Madaba, Bani Kinanah district in Irbid, Sweimeh and Wadi
Al Rayyan in the Jordan Valley, Juweideh, Khreibet Al Souq, Wadi Al Seer as well
as Zarqa.