Initiative launched to support underprivileged school-aged children

AMMAN — An initiative to support underprivileged school-aged Arab youth has been launched by a Swiss-Jordanian team, said a Jordanian economist.

"A group of Jordanians, working with the Global Challenges Forum [GCF] announced the start of the Life in Abundance [LiA] initiative in January this year," said Riad Al Khouri, a board member and senior adviser for Jordan at the GCF.

The LiA initiative, in collaboration with funding and implementation partners, plans to grant scholarships to several young people, the economist continued, noting that these first annual scholarships honour the late Mustafa Nasereddin, a Jordanian businessman, who  dedicated himself to the future of Arab youth through charitable work.

"His inspiration helped to save hundreds of young lives over the last two decades by medical treatment, and LiA will now extend this work for children by enabling them and others to build better lives for themselves, so improving the living of those around them through SDGs-focused social entrepreneurship," Khouri said.

According to the GCF, LiA's launch event will be organised on September 1 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman to both mark the 70th birthday of Nasereddin and announce scholarship beneficiaries of both genders.

Co-founded in Geneva 11 years ago by a global team, lead by Jordan’s ex-Senator Talal Abu Ghazaleh and former US diplomat Walter Christman, the GCF addresses global challenges through several initiatives, Khouri said.

Among the initiatives is the 1M2030 partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research to empower a million young people globally by 2030, which targets better lives for them through helping local communities implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said.