Jordan Times
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Schoolchildren should receive adequate healthcare, nutrition — King Abdullah
AMMAN (Petra) — His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday urged the concerned authorities to ensure that all schoolchildren receive adequate health and nutrition services, stressing the need for coordination of efforts between government departments to achieve this goal.
At a meeting held at the Royal Court, King Abdullah said the ministries of education and health should join hands with the Jordan Armed Forces to improve the present services, noting that the welfare of schoolchildren should be secured by all possible means.
Royal Court Minister Samir Rifai, Minister of Education Khalid Touqan, Minister of Health Saeed Darwazeh and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Khaled Sarayreh attended the meeting.
“We are looking forward to seeing Jordan serve as a model for other countries in the region in providing healthcare and nutrition programmes for children,” King Abdullah said at the meeting. The Monarch was briefed about a feasibility study conducted by the Jordan Armed Forces on the production of nutritious biscuits fortified with vitamins and minerals for distribution to children. Discussions covered expanding School Nutrition Programme (SNP), which currently covers students in Karak, Tafileh, Maan, Aqaba, Deir Alla, the Northern Badia, Ruweished, South Shuneh, Zarqa, Ruseifa, Shobak and Petra. Earlier this month, schools in Jerash, Ajloun and the northern Jordan Valley were added to the national programme for this year's second academic term.
Mohammad Ghazi, the programme's director at the Ministry of Education, then told The Jordan Times that the three new educational directorates bring the total number of students benefiting from the programme to 54,000. The SNP, carried out jointly by the Planning Ministry's Social Productivity Programme (SPP) and the Ministry of Education, provides students with a daily mid-morning snack containing essential vitamins. Under the SNP, each child is provided with a mid-morning snack consisting of a 200-millilitre carton of UHT milk, 70 grammes of high protein biscuits fortified with vitamins A and D and iron, in addition to a piece of fruit every day. Responding to the King's call towards the end of 2002, the Ministry of Education started distributing vitamins in March 2003 to public schoolchildren and schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency especially in underprivileged areas.