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Jordan

Queen Rania of Jordan visits those helped by empowerment project

On Wednesday, Queen Rania of Jordan visited Al Hasa Young Women Centre in Tafileh where she met up with beneficiaries of a multitude of local improvement projects.

Tafileh is a poverty-stricken governorate in the south of Jordan which has the highest unemployment rates in the country. In the past, the city has been flooded with foreign-funded projects which have sometimes fallen short in their aims to help people and have often led to further debts for the participants. On this visit, Queen Rania was visiting those that had benefitted from new initiatives led by the people themselves, with the backing and funding provided by the Royal Hashemite Court.

The new project, implemented by the Community Center Association, has so far created over 200 businesses and community projects led by local people in Tafileh and is supported by 16 local societies.

On her visit, Queen Rania met members of the CCA at the Young Women Center which she was welcomed to by the governor of Tafileh and the director of the centre. At the meeting, Her Majesty thanked and praised the centre and the local societies for their work in empowering people and creating links with stakeholders which assure financial support for the continuance of projects.

Most of the Queen’s praise was reserved, however, for the members of the public themselves. Queen Rania commented that the people had succeeded in their projects by seeking out opportunities for themselves and had used their own potential to bring new businesses to life. The CCA were also praised for using knowledge on what the local community actually needs when helping people with new enterprises, which means they are more likely to be successful.

The array of new projects helped by the CCA and supporting organisations with funds from the Royal Hashemite Court has already helped to start up hundreds or commercial, agricultural and vocational projects and will help to pull families up from below the poverty line.