Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 7, 1999
Noor Al Hussein Foundation celebrates 14th anniversary
AMMAN (J.T.) — The Noor Al Hussein Foundation celebrated its 14th anniversary this week. The foundation was established by Royal Decree in 1985 to help improve the overall quality of life of Jordanians by responding to their diverse socio-economic needs, introducing innovative, dynamic and sustainable development models, and setting national and regional standards of excellence.
Guided by Her Majesty Queen Noor, the chairperson of the Board of Trustees, the NHF programmes have successfully helped advance development thinking in Jordan by progressing beyond charity-oriented social welfare practices to integrate social development strategies more closely with national economic and social priorities.
Fourteen years after its establishment, the NHF has given a number of pioneering projects that have become part and parcel of Jordan's development achievements and that have received regional and international recognition as development models and training centres.
NHF Executive Director Sima Bahous said, “NHF's Quality of Life Project has provided a methodology in implementing grassroots democratic socio-economic development that has become a model in the region and that has reached thousands of families in more than 20 villages across Jordan; the National Handicrafts Development Project, which includes the Jordan Design and Trade Centre, the Iraq El Emir Handicrafts Village and the Salt Handicrafts Training Centre have helped hundreds of women and their families develop their talents, increase their family income, meet local demand, stimulate exports and contribute meaningfully to their communities. The NHF has also given Jordan its first children's orchestra through the National Music Conservatory while the Performing Arts Centre has linked development and art through its innovative entertainment-education approach that disseminates development messages through drama and interactive theatre. The Jubilee School has offered Jordan and the region a model for gifted education and the Institute for Child Health and Development has become a training centre in the early detection of childhood disabilities.”
The success of NHF's loan programmes has won it a grant to start a Microfinance Project that promises to reach numerous needy people who otherwise might not have access to credit.
Women empowerment and self-reliance have gained the lion's share of NHF focus as it trains and prepares women for self-management. All NHF model Women Enterprise Development Projects either have become self-managed or are on their way to being so. So far, projects in Mafraq, Rusaifa, Rimoun and Wadi Musa have been turned over to local women in newly-established cooperatives. The projects in Amman-Nuzha, Mukheibeh, Al Husseinieyyah and Iraq El Emir are preparing for handover. The Jordan Design and Trade Centre, NHF's marketing arm continues to support the independent women cooperatives with product development and marketing.
“By the year 2000, NHF will pride itself not by how many projects we run, but by how many projects we have actually turned over to the local communities,” Bahous stated.
“The success of NHF projects has proven that NGOs can play a leading vital role in integrated sustainable development, that they can successfully act as catalysts, advocacy tools and supporters of the social safety net and of government,” Bahous said.
“We plan to further boost the role of NGOs in development by cooperating with government and the private sector, and by enhancing NHF's role as a beacon of sustainable development, an incubator of models of excellence, a provider of sound training and facilitator of community self-reliance.
Currently, NHF supports more than 50 projects across the country with support from various U.N. agencies, international organisations and private donors and in close collaboration with the government.