Unicef Executive Director visits Jordan in first leg of regional mission

The visit to Jordan comes as the first stop of a mission which will also take her to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, to take stock of the situation of children in the region.

Veneman met Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. The Queen is a strong leader in addressing the most pressing needs of children in Jordan, while also providing inspiration to children at the regional and international level, through her pioneering role as Unicef's Eminent Advocate for Children.

Queen Rania strongly advocated on behalf of children in the recent conflict in Gaza and the country has been instrumental in providing support to the Gaza population through the delivery of aid. Veneman also met with a number of officials while in Jordan.

"A recent study shows that more than one half of children in Jordan experience physical violence in school," said Veneman. "Violence against children in schools is unacceptable and should not be tolerated."

Unicef is partnering with the Ministry of Education and Unrwa to tackle the issue of violence in schools through the Ma'an (Together) initiative.

The Family Protection department within the police is also responding to the problem of violence against children with a program of early detection in public hospitals, a telephone help-line and a referral system through the Ministry of Social Development.

A wide-scale better parenting campaign is being conducted nation-wide through the use of Imams in Mosques that targets mainly fathers and teaches them the principles of child care, respect, protection, and non-discrimination between girls and boys.

"The use of religious leaders and their moral authority in teaching principles of child rights to parents and families is an efficient way to reach out to the wider community. It is a powerful advocacy channel," said Veneman.

Since the start of this programme in the year 2000 in partnership with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and NGOs, Unicef has trained 600 Imams in skills to train parents on proper child rearing practices. Over 130,000 families have been trained on parenting skills.

The Executive Director visited several schools, including one that takes part in the Madrasati (My School) initiative. Madrasati (My School) is an original multi-pronged approach to education, which brings together the public and private sectors, as well as parents and the community in a collective effort to improve public school facilities and the standard of education throughout the country. Veneman welcomed the initiative as the kind of partnership needed to improve the quality of education.

Some of the schools that the Executive Director visited have integrated Iraqi children currently in Jordan. According to the Ministry of Education, there are 26,800 Iraqi children in school across Jordan. Jordan is also host to Palestinian refugees since 1948.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) - which caters for Palestinian refugees in the region - has 1.7 million Palestinian refugees registered in its records in Jordan.