Jordan Times
Friday, July 8, 2005
Child abuse centre to
focus on prevention
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — The Jordan River Foundation's (JRF) newly
inaugurated Queen Rania Family and Child Centre (QRFCC) seeks to become a beacon
in the region for enhanced child protection programmes, with the emphasis firmly
on prevention.
Located in the Jabal Nasser area of the capital, the centre will offer awareness
and training programmes in child abuse prevention strategies to all concerned
parties, including education professionals, students, researchers and local
community organisations, among others.
The choice of the centre's location — a densely populated area of around 200,000
inhabitants — was based on several factors, chief among them being the high
percentage of unemployment, poverty and low levels of educational attainment, in
addition to a high school dropout rate, according to a JRF statement.
Since the establishment of the Family Protection Department (FPD) in 1998, the
issue of child abuse in the Kingdom has been firmly placed on the map.
Up until the end of 2004, the FPD, an entity of the Public Security Department,
had dealt with a total of 5,283 cases of physical and sexual child abuse.
In the past, efforts to combat child abuse were focussed on providing help to
victims, such as at Dar Al Aman, set up by the JRF in 2000 as the first centre
in the region to care for victims of abuse.
In contrast to past efforts, the QRFCC intends to concentrate on prevention.
“We aim to focus on a holistic approach by involving all the community in the
prevention of child abuse,” the director of the new centre, Samia Bshara, said.
She added that part of the centre's work would involve outreach-training
programmes for judges, imams and teachers to “entrench child protection concepts
within the society.”
The centre also seeks to ensure a healthy start for children by providing
developmentally appropriate learning laboratories serving the needs of infants
(birth-2 years), toddlers (2-3 years), young children (3-4 years) and parents,
develop the capacity of staff, educators, stakeholders, professionals and
paraprofessionals working with children.
“In relation to children, our goal is to provide a secure environment where
children feel free to open up on a variety of topics affecting their lives
through art, drama, music and creative writing classes,” said Bshara.
Officially inaugurated by Her Majesty Queen Rania on Tuesday, the QRFCC also
seeks to equip newly-weds and “expecting” parents with relevant knowledge and
skills regarding relationships, positive communication, family dynamics and
parenting skills.
Donors contributing to the establishment of the QRFCC include the Greater Amman
Municipality, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and RESCATE, among
others.
The realisation of the centre was made possible by JRF's fundraising efforts, in
particular a gala dinner at Versailles, Paris, in 2002 attended by Queen Rania.