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AMMAN — The Abu Dhabi-based Make-a-Wish Foundation has fulfilled the wishes of 18 children from the King Hussein Cancer Centre through the “Dreams Come True” programme, according to a statement released Sunday by the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF).

The foundation also granted two children the opportunity to attend the Dubai International Film Festival, making their wishes come true. HH Princess Dina Mired, director of the KHCF, thanked the Make-a-Wish Foundation for its continuous support to the KHCF’s “Dreams Come True” programme, highlighting the importance of making children’s wishes come true as part of their treatment process. The programme includes organising birthday parties and other celebrations for young cancer patients.

AMMAN — Six people on Sunday were injured in a 12-vehicle pile-up in east Amman, according to a Civil Defence Department (CDD) statement. CDD cadres administered first aid to the injured and took them to hospital. The accident involved nine small vehicles and three trailer trucks.

AMMAN — King’s Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mashal Al Zaben on Sunday met with a Saudi military delegation. Zaben and the head of the Saudi delegation, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Al Qahtani, commander of the Saudi Maintenance Corps, discussed ways to enhance military cooperation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — HRH Princess Sumaya on Sunday attended the first national conference on teachers’ security and protection. Organised by the Jordan Teachers Association, the conference seeks to arrive at solutions to end attacks on educational institutions and educators, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Delivering an address at the conference, Princess Sumaya noted that safeguarding teachers’ dignity is key to the success of the education process, calling for comprehensive awareness campaigns that clarify the important role of educators.

AMMAN — Acting Lower House Speaker Deputy Mustafa Amawi met on Sunday with Knesset member Ahmad Tibi, head of the Jerusalem committee of the joint Arab list. During the meeting, attended by several MPs, Amawi asserted Jordan’s support for the Palestinian people and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Tibi highlighted the role that the Jerusalem committee is carrying out in serving the Palestinian cause, stressing the importance of intensifying efforts in support of the Palestinian people at different regional and international platforms. He lauded Jordan’s role and stressed the importance of continued communication between the two sides.

AMMAN — Enhancing cooperation and coordination among all security bodies, administrative governors and other concerned authorities is a main pillar to achieve security and stability, Interior Minister Salameh Hammad said Sunday.

Hammad made his remarks during a meeting with Public Security Department Director Maj. Gen. Atef Saudi, Gendarmerie Department Director Maj. Gen. Hussein Hawatmeh, CDD General Director Lt. Gen.

Talal Kofahi, Interior Ministry Secretary General Samir Mubaideen and several governors and security leaders, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The minister stressed the importance of continuous communication with civil society institutions to address their needs.

AMMAN — Zarqa Preventive Security Department agents have arrested a suspect for reportedly defrauding an Arab out of JD850,000, the Public Security Department (PSD) said Sunday. The suspect, who was caught attempting to flee the country, allegedly took the money from the victim after saying he would buy real estate for him.

The victim, then, was surprised that the man disappeared without finishing ownership transfer transactions, according to a PSD statement. Further investigation enabled preventive security agents to identify and arrest the suspect. In initial questioning, the suspect confessed to committing the fraud, the PSD said, adding that the investigation is still in progress.

AMMAN — A group of unemployed doctors on Sunday organised a sit-in near the Professional Associations Complex and demanded to be offered jobs in the health sector.

Ayman Taamah, a protester, said there are around 1,500 unemployed doctors who graduated from Jordanian and foreign universities, some of whom have been looking for jobs since 2011, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

He noted that some job-seeking doctors are forced to works at health centres for low salaries just to secure their daily expenses, while others work in professions that have nothing to do with their specialisation.

AMMAN — Azraq camp for Syrian refugees is facing “harsh conditions” with an increasing number of daily voluntary returns to Syria, due to lack of facilities, said the Care International acting team leader at the camp, Jameel Dababneh.

The camp opened in April 2014, as the second biggest camp after the Zaatari camp. Last week, the camp was hosting around 28,589 Syrian refugees, according to the UNHCR. 

Aoife McDonnell, associate external relations officer at UNHCR Jordan, said the camp’s capacity is 50,000, and is expandable up to 130,000.

Dababneh said the camp is divided into four villages, only two of which are populated. 

In terms of utilities, he said the camp “has no electricity… and the vast space of the camp hinders access to services and facilities”, such as the only outlet for food and grocery items in the camp.

The UN refugee agency's liaison officer, Ali Bibi, said the reason for the insufficient facilities inside the camp is the lack of attention to the Azraq camp by the international community and the media.

According to McDonnell, the World Food Programme (WFP) provides refugees with food coupons, debit and e-cards, which they can use to buy food from  the Sameh Mall in the camp. WFP also distributes four loaves of bread per individual daily.

WFP undertakes the provision of daily meals to the refugees, paying each JD20 a month to buy their needs, according to Shaza Moghraby, WFP’s spokesperson.

“Enough is never enough… we get complaints and we know how [high] the prices are in Jordan; prices in Syria were much lower… The refugees are still in shock,” she said. 

“Four pieces of bread for each refugee, amounting to a total of 350,000 pieces of bread distributed in the camp every day, make survival a possibility,” she told The Jordan Times. 

Since the beginning of the year, WFP has been facing funding shortages, the spokesperson told The Jordan Times, adding that starting December, the allowance for each individual amounted to JD15 instead of JD20.

The JD5 will cover the shortages in the camp, and the allowance for refugees will stay at JD15 until May 2016 at this rate of funding, she said. 

“The shortage in funding is due to multiple factors,” Moghraby said, explaining that one of the major reasons is that the crisis has been ongoing for five years, “and is still an emergency”, while the other crises that have emerged in the region have led to the current dire situation.

The UNHCR office said an average of 52 babies are delivered in the camp and the average mortality rate is two individuals a month.

Dababneh added that the camp has also witnessed some “complicated health cases”, stressing on the essentiality of electricity.

“Electricity is not luxury; it is  vital for health, protection and security,” Dababneh noted.

Due to these circumstances, there has been a steady number of voluntary returns to Syria, he said. 

The average cases of return amount to almost 200 per month, UNHCR officials said.

The UNHCR, in partnership with the government, is working on establishing a solar electrical system to generate electricity in the camp.

“An extensive electrification plan of the camp has been approved and will begin early 2016 along with a solar power plant that will cover the electricity needs of the camp,” McDonnell told The Jordan Times.

“This project will make a huge difference to the many families in Azraq Camp.”

On a positive note, Moghraby said WFP launched a mobile application in cooperation with Google Play, where users can donate a meal with a click for one Syrian family living in camps. 

“Share the Meal” is a mobile application launched last month, and [anyone] can donate $0.50 per click for a meal… Over a million meals have been donated since November 2015, she added.

Around 19 international and one national organisations were working in Azraq camp on  November30, 2015, the UNHCR official said.

Moghraby voiced hope that “more stable and predictable” sources of funding would cover the camp’s needs. 

“Children are the future, we have to make sure we don’t have a ‘lost generation’, and focus on schools so when these children go back to Syria, they [would be able to] contribute to rebuilding their country,” Moghraby said.

AMMAN — The Islamic Action Front (IAF) dismissed two of its veteran members without prior notice or explanation of the reason for this move, it was announced.

One of the two outgoing leaders, Ghaith Qudah, is a founding member of IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group.  

The other is Saed Al Athem and both belong to the Tlaa Al Ali branch of the Islamist party.

Qudah told The Jordan Times that the party issued a statement announcing it had terminated his membership before “notifying us or even mentioning our names”.

The statement was followed by a notice to Qudah and Athem, who issued a joint statement slamming the IAF for the “arbitrary” decision.

“The notice does not include the reason for revoking our membership and without referring us to the internal court within the party. This is unprecedented,” Qudah told The Jordan Times over the phone.

However, he noted that the reason might be because both Qudah and the other dismissed member were talking in more than one place about their intention to resign their IAF membership.

“The IAF is the only party in the world that dismisses members for their mere intentions,” they said in the statement.

Despite the several attempts by The Jordan Times to call Murad Adaileh, the IAF spokesperson, he was not available for comment.

A total of 28 of the IAF key members “walked out” of the party last month.

All were members in the newly licensed Muslim Brotherhood Society, founded by Abdul Majeed Thneibat, a former overall leader of the mother group. 

Jamil Dheisat, spokesperson of the society, said: “We withdrew instead of resigning, as the resignation requires the approval of the executive bureau.”

The defectors are expected to form a new political party, along with other Islamists known as “doves”, including participants in the so-called Zamzam Initiative.

“Work is under way to found this party that will not be restricted to any ideology,” Dheisat told The Jordan Times.

Zamzam is a moderate socio-political movement launched in 2012 by the liberal wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and has attracted other members from the broader political spectrum.