Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Queen Rania stresses
importance of institutionalizing family protection issues
AMMAN (JT) - Her Majesty Queen Rania on Monday continued to push for
institutionalizing family protection issues at a training workshop held by the
National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) for the ministries of education,
social development and justice.
The Queen noted that the protection of women and children must be prioritized,
stressing that “the family unit is the most important component of our society
and we must work hard to protect our children and women.”
“We’re not only looking to conduct workshops, but are hoping to see concrete
results that will produce highly qualified staff to deal with the issue of
family violence,” said the Queen, an advocate for protecting the rights of women
and children.
Through the training, the NCFA aims to ensure that the protocols and procedures
developed as part of the National Family Protection Framework are mainstreamed
using a customized training manual for each ministry as part of the National
Strategic Plan for Family Protection (NSPFP).
The NSPFP was formulated to strengthen current national efforts in decreasing
the percentage of abused women through reinforcing anti–violence against women
policies, improving the quality of detection of violence against women cases,
and developing a network of outreach counseling for victims.
“It is also your role to raise awareness about violence, and clarify that it is
against our customs, religion, and laws,” Queen Rania told the participants,
pointing out that violence against women and children is an affront to human
rights.
Her Majesty also commended the role that counselors can play in tackling the
issue.
Ninety practitioners from the ministries of education, social development and
justice targeting social workers, school counselors, judges and public
prosecutors from the central region took part in the workshop.
More workshops will be held across the Kingdom for the relevant ministries.
Earlier Monday, Queen Rania launched the Private Sector Project for Women’s
Health (PSP) partnership project to combat violence against women (VAW).
The PSP partnership project, which involves the NCFA, the Queen Zein Al Sharaf
Institute for Development (ZENID) and the Noor Al Hussein Foundation/Institute
for Family Health (NHF/IHF), was initiated to implement key activities put forth
in the NSPFP.
During a meeting with program directors and field workers of the partner
institutions, Her Majesty underscored the importance of such a partnership,
noting that the role of each organization is vital to ensure the
institutionalization and sustainability in reducing family violence and raising
public awareness of the sensitivities and traits associated with tackling the
issue.
During yesterday’s launch, a documentary was screened illustrating the roles,
responsibilities, programs and activities of each partner institution in
coordinating the efforts of the relevant public, private and civil society
institutions in the field, in line with the activities stipulated in the NSPFP.
NCFA Secretary General Jamil Smadi spoke of the council’s role as a partner that
will work to encourage policy and decision makers to address VAW as a national
priority, and conduct workshops for key decision makers at the ministries of
social development, education, health, justice and awqaf.
The USAID-funded PSP project, through its partners, represents a commitment to
create a favorable environment for the establishment of national programs,
policies and legislation to address VAW.
As a partner in the project, the IFH has identified nine private hospitals
throughout the country, and together with the Jordan Medical Council, will train
their medical staff in VAW detection and referral.
ZENID will award competitive grants to six NGOs to expand their services to
communities across Jordan. A referral system will be set up to link trained
doctors with outreach health workers of the Circassian Charity Association and
the General Union of Voluntary Societies, so as to reach 42,000 women in their
homes to raise their awareness, provide them with counseling sessions and direct
those who are victims of violence to the appropriate referral centers and
entities.
The PSP is a five-year project (2005-2010) with a mandate to improve the health
of women and families. The project aims to increase the availability of quality
private sector healthcare services; knowledge and awareness of family planning;
early detection of breast cancer and reduce domestic violence.