Prevention

The Foundation recognizes that treating the root causes of child abuse is an integral component that compliments intervention efforts. CSP prevention activities have always aimed at creating strong community networks, increasing public awareness and promoting healthy families to protect children and enhance their welfare. In 2004, the outreach efforts of JRF were expanded and awareness sessions were conducted in most of the Kingdom’s governorates.

 

These awareness sessions targeted local community members, professionals in education, health, law enforcement and government employees. Religious leaders, an integral segment of Jordanian society, were sought out and attained as allies in promoting child rights and protection. Additionally, JRCP has worked with children and youth in schools to understand their human rights, recognize danger signals and protect themselves from becoming victims of abuse.

 

Prevention efforts are implemented at two levels – primary and secondary. Work at the primary level has begun through a national campaign to raise society’s level of awareness about issues of child’s rights and maltreatment, and to address the social denial associated with this issue in a culturally sensitive manner. At the secondary level, the Foundation established Queen Rania Family and Child Center (QRFCC) to support and promote the healthy development of children and families. QRFCC, located in Jabal Al-Naser, houses the Foundation's activities that embody the guiding principle of child abuse prevention.

 

The various obstacles encountered when addressing child abuse require aggressive proactive measures for its eradication. These proactive measures must be provided in an integrated and comprehensive manner at the earliest stage of childhood and parenting. Additionally, such preventative measures must also include enhancing skills among educators and professionals, as well as supporting the efforts of stakeholders in child safety issues to ensure the healthy development of future generations.

 

Furthermore, prevention activities must be pro-development to ensure that strong community networks and healthy families serve to support vulnerable members of society. JRF believes that positive change will only occur through fostering a broad social context that adopts “a culture of prevention” and addresses Jordanian culture and traditions.

 

The Queen Rania Family and Child Center
CSP prevention activities have always aimed at creating strong community networks, increasing public awareness and promoting healthy families to protect children and enhance their welfare. Through its work on prevention, JRF inaugurated the Queen Rania Family and Child Centre (QRFCC) located in Jabal Al Nasser; an area in the eastern part of the capital Amman. QRFCC is a community centre that provides integrated and holistic services to combat child abuse by strengthening the family unit in partnership with the local community and various stakeholders..

QRFCC adopts an ecological model of comprehensive and integrated services to incorporate the cultural context, community, family and the individual (parent/child) in the “process of change” and securing child safety. A multifaceted and comprehensive approach is used to address the multiple risk factors associated with child rights, while identifying protective factors that enhance family functioning. The Center demonstrates multiple models to families and children for healthy interaction that meet the needs of a multicultural diverse population and provide hands-on training for different professionals (e.g. teachers, counselors and nurses).

Objectives of QRFCC: QRFCC aims to

• To spread awareness and increase knowledge about child safety and protection from abuse.

• To activate the roles of Jordanian community members and institutions to promote child rights and safety.

• To disseminate Jordan River Child Safetys and infrastructures at a national level.

• To strengthen positive family dynamics and relations, hence secure a more positively stimulating environment for children to grow and to learn

• To empower community members with skills needed to protect children against abuse and to promote developmentally appropriate practices.

• To empower children to protect themselves from abuse by providing them with much needed knowledge and skills.

Our programs:
Through its awareness and training programs, the QRFCC provides a variety of preventive and awareness-raising programs that appropriately fulfill the needs of various community groups.

1. Awareness-raising Programs

2. Training Programs

3. Community Mobilization

1. Awareness-raising Programs:
The awareness programs include lectures and dissemination of information addressing the basic concepts of child rights and protection. The awareness programs aim at creating a common ground where all segments of the community and civil society organizations involved in child welfare can rally and join forces. The ultimate goal is to involve all stakeholders in establishing an understanding of child rights, which will translate into attitudinal changes that assist in future implementation of initiatives.

In 2009, the center conducted a total of 115 Aawareness lLectures in different locations around Jordan reaching 2654 individuals. For numbers of sessions in previous years, please refer to JRF’s sustanibility reports.

2. Training Programs:
Through its training programs, QRFCC strives to build the capacities of various groups including:

• Primary caregivers and professionals working with children from all sectors .
  Through JRF’s training center , JRF provides care givers and professionals working with children with training programs on concepts of child rights and protection; definitions, risk factors, consequences and healthy upbringing approaches
  Examples of training programs.

  • Multidisciplinary approach to child protection.

  • Case assessment and management.

  • Developmentally appropriate practices and better parenting. This course targets newlyweds, first-time mothers, professionals and paraprofessionals caring for children between birth and four years of age. The aim is to empower adult groups with the skills and practices that will enhance their capacity in caring for their children in the stage of early childhood, and consequently enriching the development of children.

  • Training-of-Trainers. This program is designed to empower other trainers, who will make up core national teams to join forces with the CSP in the process of disseminating information and raising awareness across the Kingdom. In this context, JRF is motivated by the profound belief in the importance of knowledge transfer and sustainability. JRF is committed to involving other professionals and community members in the task of spreading awareness and knowledge as part of our continuous efforts to mobilize support and advocacy pertaining to child’s rights and protection.

   

• Adolescent Girls
  Upon its establishment, QRFCC realized the existence of a great need for resources and programs among female adolescents. According to a participatory rapid appraisal survey that was conducted by QRFCC staff in Jabal Al-Naser (the area in which the facility is located) in October 2004, more than 70% of young girls dropped out of school by the age of 16. The conservative mindset of many of their families and the lack of social and recreational outlets restricts the exposure, participation and development of this target group. Girls end up helping their mothers with domestic duties and taking care of their younger siblings or their nieces and nephews. This is done in preparation for their marriage, since the average age for marriage among young girls is 19 years.

QRFCC dedicates specific social and functional programs for adolescent who suffer in these communities from school drop-out, lack of informal educational opportunities and limited opportunities to participate actively in their communities. These programs aim to empower young girls and to enhance their competencies and skills by increasing their self awareness, confidence, participation and contribution to their families, communities and to the society at-large.

Fit for Life
In 2007, QRFCC established a sports hall for women and young girls in 2007 and launched the Fit for Life Program to help them achieve a healthy balance between body and mind, and consequently enhance the overall quality of their life.

The program uses a holistic approach which incorporates physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development to contribute to a healthier growth and optimal development of young girls in the local community of Jabal Al Nasser. It aims to provide a wide variety of physical and edutainment activities to address the needs of young girls and consequently contribute to their physical and psychosocial well-being.

• To date, the beneficiaries’ involvement within the program has been on more than one level. Activities offered in the program.1- Measurements & Weight Principles of Exercise Basic Exercise Guidelines

• Identity Awareness as it relates to Physical Appearance

• Awareness Raising Component

• The individual and the interactive circles surrounding him/her
  A comprehensive training program, that aims at developing youth self-understanding. It is an inner journey that will enable youth to connect to their beliefs, values, thoughts and feelings.
  Due to the importance of family and community, this program will work with youth on three levels, the personal, family and community level. Dealing with these levels will strengthen youth enough towards establishing a personal safe space, with a strong understanding of one’s own identity, interconnecting and interacting with others in their surroundings.
  The program works with Adolescents and Youth, ages 14 – 18 years old, at three main levels: the personal level focusing on concepts like self realization, personal characteristics, self expression, the family level including acknowledge personal value within family, personal rights and communication and the community level enhancing notions of citizenship and positive change which youth can make in their societies.
   

• Puppet Making Workshop
  The workshop focuses on teaching women and adolescent girls, the different skills of creating numerous types of puppets. Participants are trained on producing commercial puppets for educational and entertainment projects, a market that is lacking in Jordan. They are also involved in the production of puppets utilized in the Salhouf Tales Series puppet show. This project has created economic opportunities for the mothers and young females participants by, providing them with the concepts and skills related to producing a highly used and demanded product from which they could generate income. Moreover, it encouraged them to use these puppets as a mean to play and communicate with their children.
  
  The workshop focuses on creating puppets made at a medium to low cost, made from materials that could be found at home, for retail within local communities or for use within the household. Puppets created in the workshop are Muppets, Sock puppets and Marionettes.
   

• Children
  INTERACTIVE LIBRARY
  The interactive library is a child friendly model of an environment that would replace the traditional criteria and specifications of children’s libraries and the traditional pursuit of knowledge therein. The space within the interactive library aims to fuse communication with reading, playing, conversing, writing and expressing through various forms of art and play. Adults in the interactive library primarily cater to the needs of children, through children’s areas of interest using developmentally and culturally appropriate means. Main programs implemented within the interactive library include; “Together We Can Build our Country” addressing children’s rights and responsibilities within their local community and society, “We are Different but yet Alike” promoting self-concept and value, as well as accepting the “different” other and instilling peace-building relationships, and “Stop Bullying” addressing a major problem in schools and communities among peers, specifically among adolescents.

DRAMA WORKSHOP
Drama is a significant educative medium through which children can get in touch with their inner self and realize their capacities. The main objective of the drama workshop is to help children realize and connect with their inner selves and consequently reach a level of harmony between the child and him/her-self. Activities of this workshop encourage children to understand and express their inner thoughts and feelings through sound (words) and movement (body).

Programs implemented within the drama workshop includes “Who am I?” addressing main concepts of child safety, the privacy of the body and circles of trust, and the other with adults and young children “Being Intimate with Your Child”, related to the emotional relationship between children and caregivers.

THE POWER OF COLOR (ARTS WORKSHOP)
For children who are at risk of being abused or have experienced abuse, trauma or loss, drawing helps to externalize painful emotions and events that are difficult to verbalize and is an effective mean through which children are able to convey the complexities of unspoken fears, anxieties, painful experiences, repressed memories or guilt. Drawings expediently bring out issues to the surface, thus accelerating the helping professional’s ability to prevent at-risk children from being abused and to intervene and assist troubled and abused children.

Through the programs designed for drawing exercises, children learn that painting and everything their pencils and crayons illustrate have value. This approach further fosters their self-confidence and allows them to master a skill through which they can, without limitations, communicate and interact with others. Children active in the Arts Workshop are also given the opportunity to participate in national, pan-Arab and international competitions and exhibitions, thus appreciating their work and enhancing their sense of achievement.

IT IN CHILD SAFETY (COMPUTER LAB
The IT training program does not only include learning computer skills and the use of various computer programs but also uses the computer as a tool through which children and youth learn how to interact positively with each other within the group, to express themselves and to think creatively. The IT training program includes learning about the different parts, processes and functions of this machine as well as learning to use Microsoft Office and the various programs which would promote self expression and emphasize the learning process.
Different than other IT centres, the main objective of this IT lab is not only to teach children basic computer skills and applications, but rather to express themselves verbally, pictorially and symbolically in a fluent manner through the use of new technology.

FIT FOR LIFE (SPORTS WORKSHOP)
This workshop offers a wide variety of indoor and outdoor recreational and physical education opportunities to challenge and stimulate children and young girls, hence contribute to their physical and psychosocial well-being. The gym is equipped with the finest machines and aerobics classes are also conducted. Trainers use a variety of methods to encourage girls to develop such aspects of physical fitness as flexibility, agility, co-ordination, strength, balance, and, especially, cardiovascular respiratory endurance.

• Youth
  As a vital part of the young Jordanian society, and following JRF’s methodology, Youth are recognized and integrated within the different programs and trainings implemented at QRFCCIn the implementation of the different projects and training programs at QRFCC, including:

• Comprehensive Youth Training within the Interactive Mediums
  QRFCC’s training programs are effective tools that aim at working WITH youth comprehensively, helping them evolve from being youth in need for help to youth that can and offer to help. Training programs catered specifically for youth vary from Programs that focuse on their Psychosocial Wellbeing to others that Focus on promoting the concepts of Social and Civic Engagement and Skills Building including IT and arts.

• Programs for Adolescent Females:
  QRFCC is quite sensitive to cultural and traditional restrictions that might hinder the involvement of female youth. As a result, several programs were designed to cater for female youth as a separate group to assure their involvement in the program. more.

• Towards an Empowered Generation: The Youth Summer Voluntary Program - YSVP
  Since the summer of 2007, QRFCC has been holding an annual summer volunteer program entitled “Towards an Empowered Generation”. YSVP is based on the idea of integrating youth from east and west Amman and engaging them in a community based civic engagement initiative. Through this program, Youth are able to become active and participatory citizens playing a fundamental role in the development of their local community. The youth, engaged in volunteering not only dedicate their time and efforts at QRFCC, but also assist in the renovation and development of their local communities. In addition to this, participating youth are able to develop their own skills, some of which might include, leadership, conflict resolution and participation. In 2009, 230 youth participated in this annual initiative; for more information about numbers from previous years, please refer to JRF’s sustainability reports.

• Towards an Empowered Generation: The Youth Leadership Program
  In 2009, QRFCC launched its Leadership Program, aiming to engage youth from across the country to become active and responsible citizens in building a better future for Jordan. The program implemented numerous phases, focuses on various leadership skills relying on both theoretical and practical components, such as decision making, team building, project management as well, and communication skills.
  In April 2010, 25 distinguished university students gathered from across the Kingdom in a five days camp that to receive a comprehensive training on how to manage and lead the Foundation’s annual ‘Summer Youth Volunteer Program’.

• Cultural Exchange :
  QRFCC works to promote cross cultural exchange opportunities with youth based organizations globally, such as One World Now and Unga Ornor. One example is JRF’s coordination with One World Now , where two of JRF’s youth volunteered to teach Arabic to non- Arabic speakers in USA, while 5 youth from One World Now volunteered in JRF’s Youth Summer Volunteer Program in 2009 which took place in Amman, Jordan.

• Youth Initiatives:
  To sustain working with youth at QRFCC, a core youth committee was created under the name of “Al Ghad Youth Committee” to represent youth within the area of Jabal Al-Nasser. The committee is responsible for youth empowerment, mobilization and participation across the year. The committee is currently consisting of 20 youth from Jabal Al Nasir area.

3. Community Mobilization
CSP prevention activities have always aimed at creating strong community networks, increasing public awareness and promoting healthy families to protect children and enhance their rights. In 2006, the outreach efforts of JRF were expanded through the Community Mobilization (CMU) Unit at the Queen Rania Family and Child Center (QRFCC). The establishment of the Unit comes in line with QRFCC’s mission to cultivate a culture of child safety through Jordan River Community Empowerment and participation. This is based on the consensus that safety, permanency and well-being of children are more successful when children and families are supported within their communities.

The Community Mobilization Unit aims to enhance the level of community awareness about child safety and activate the role of local communities in preventing child abuse. This is achieved through formulating community based child safety committees in the north, center and the south of the Kingdom. The community based committees include representatives from governmental and non-governmental organizations in each community as well as community figures. Upon formulation and capacity building, each community is mobilized to assess the needs in relation to child rights and safety, prioritize outcomes and consequently design an annual action plan for change and development.

Up to date, CMU has established ten local child safety committees in various regions across the country. Annually, the CMU follows up on mobilizing already established committees as well as establishing new committees in other local communities.