Japanese ambassador visits UN centre in Ajloun

AJLOUN — Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Hidenao Yanagi on Monday visited the women and girls’ centre at the Institute for Family Health (IFH) in the city of Ajloun.

The official met with service providers and women seeking counselling and health assistance through the centre. 

Operated by UN Women and the Noor Al Hussein Foundation, the centre is the first safe space in Ajloun to offer tailored services aimed at survivors of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), according to IFH Director Ibrahim Aqel.

In addition, the centre provides several medical and counselling services for women and awareness raising activities for residents in the governorate, with youth engagement being one of the key dimensions of the centre’s outreach in the community. 

The activities of the centre are implemented through the Japan-funded UN Women’s Leadership, Empowerment and Access and Protection in Crisis Response project, which works at the country level to provide “immediate and essential” services to Syrian refugees and other vulnerable women and girls in Jordan across refugee camp settings and host communities. 

Within the project’s framework, the UN agency partnered with IFH to provide critical SGBV prevention and response services, as well as healthcare in the IFH centres located in the northern governorates of Ajloun and Jerash. 

As a result, IFH’s safe spaces in both governorates provide over 6,000 vulnerable Jordanian and Syrian refugee women with prevention and response to war-related trauma and SGBV, as well as with other medical and counselling services such as antenatal and postnatal assistance, family planning and psychological support. 

The partnership also encompasses the provision of life skills and recreational structured education courses for young men and women, seeking to engage men and boys in awareness raising efforts towards the eradication of gender-based violence.

During the visit, Yanagi expressed the Japanese government’s appreciation for “UN Women’s dedication in providing services to the Syrian refugee and Jordanian women in the field of women’s empowerment and protection”, noting that Japan has been assisting the activities of the UN agency both inside and outside refugee camps in Jordan continuously since 2014. 

“Eight years into the conflict, Japan hopes for the Syrian refugee’s safe return to their homes — but in the meantime, it is essential to continue to support the Jordanian people and other host countries in their endeavour to provide essential services to the most vulnerable,” the ambassador told The Jordan Times. 

UN Women Jordan Representative Ziad Sheikh noted that “community centres play a vital role in providing multi-sectoral protection services where women and girls can find a safe space to break the cycle of silence on violence and abuse”, warning that “the social stigma around SGBV is the most important issue to be addressed, with many women still finding themselves at odds when accessing SGBV response and protection services”.

Commenting on the remarks, Aqel lamented that “the social stigma surrounding gender based violence remains one of the biggest challenges”, noting that “this is one of the core reasons behind the creation of safe spaces like this one”.

“Luckily, a change is starting to happen within the community of Ajloun,” he said, noting that IFH is partnering with community based organisations, the Family Protection Directorate and several UN agencies in order to further raise awareness on the issue.