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MAFRAQ — HRH Princess Basma on Sunday officially inaugurated the Social Support Centre, a hexagonal stadium and a children’s park in Mafraq Governorate.

Established by Save the Children and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), the centre helps school dropouts rejoin formal and non-formal education, linking them with vocational training, and providing counselling to them and children found at risk of child labour.

According to the law, the minimum age for regular work is 16, and 18 for hazardous work, which the Labour Ministry defined in 1997 as dangerous, tiring or harmful to the health of juveniles.

The JD118,000 stadium and park, established at the Princess Basma Centre for Development in Mafraq, was supported by Mercy Corps and funded by UNCHR and the British embassy as part of a project that aims at developing local communities.

Implemented in Irbid and Mafraq governorates, the project helps local residents and Syrian refugees overcome transformations that took place as a result of the Syrian crisis, according to the organisations involved.

It also trains individuals to identify the needs of their respective areas and manage projects that lead to social change.

Princess Basma checked on the centre’s classrooms and was briefed on the extra-curricular activities it provides.

The facility is part of a US-funded $3.9 million project, dubbed “Promising Future”, implemented by Save the Children to eliminate child labour in Jordan through education and improve the living conditions of families with working children.

JOHUD also works with Save the Children to provide social support services in Marka and Zarqa, which have high rates of child labour.

The princess also listened to the testimony of five students, including one Syrian, on the programmes and services they receive at the centre and its branch in Amman.

Commending the efforts of all stakeholders, Princess Basma underlined the importance of the newly established facilities in light of the difficult social, economic and political circumstances the local community is facing in Mafraq, some 80km northeast of Amman.

She cited the “fruitful” cooperation between JOHUD and official institutions, such as the ministries of labour and education and the Vocational Training Corporation, to combat child labour.

Saba Mbaslat, director of Save the Children programmes in Jordan, said the phenomenon is on the rise in the Kingdom, citing child labour as one the consequences of the Syrian crisis and calling for more efforts to combat it.

“We should reject seeing a child working to support the family… investing in our children and protecting them should always be a priority,” she added.

According to the UNCHR, a total of 107,300 Syrian refugees registered in Jordan are children between the ages of one and four. Some 117,000 are under eleven.

AMMAN — Pioneer Jordanian artist Yasser Dwaik is celebrating his 50-year career with a retrospective exhibition in Amman showcasing works from all periods of his multifaceted production.

With organisers stressing Dwaik’s role in laying the foundation for the blossoming of art in Jordan, the artist said he was constantly searching for the next inspiration, noting that, following Dutch artist Rembrandt’s beliefs: “All my works are a personal photo of me.”

“I still recall my suffering in search of art tools and materials in the middle of the libraries of Jerusalem as a child. Even there, it was extremely difficult to get art books and materials,” Dwaik told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

“One day, when I was about 13, I even sent a letter to a shop in Egypt asking how to use charcoals. I had to learn how to do everything by myself. It was very hard but I was highly motivated.”

Starting with painting, and having grown confident with the use of colours, Dwaik started drawing Jerusalem’s alleys, arches, minarets, bells, people and markets which influenced his first paintings and photography and his handling of water and oil colours.

The shock of the Israeli occupation of what was left of the Palestinian land in 1967 caused a transition in the way he handled art forms, Dwaik noted, adding that from that moment, the topics he presented were mostly a challenge to the sad circumstances in his surroundings.

The state of Israel was established on Palestinian land after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and later expanded illegally in the wake of the 1967 Middle East war, occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and annexing East Jerusalem as part of its capital, a move never recognised at an international level.

Following this event, Dwaik, like many other Palestinians, left Jerusalem and found sanctuary in Jordan.

“I used to make references in my work, in my paintings especially, to the landscape and the place I lived in,” he said.

“I painted ruins in many backgrounds, but they were always stylised and in combination with circles, representing the sun or the moon — signs of hope. There were often trees before those ruins with light gleefully coming through their leaves.”

After travelling to Europe and completing his studies in Baghdad, Dwaik became acquainted with graphics and printing that made his work more abstract, with geometric shapes gradually taking over the former figurative style.

“My experience with graphics and its multiple techniques and methods had a great impact in achieving an expressive vision of spiritual symbols reflecting my feelings and senses towards the course of the world’s events,” Dwaik said.

“The aim of the exhibition ‘50 years in Art’ is to point out all the different sides of a life’s work,” Mohammad Jaloos, curator at the Cairo Amman Bank art gallery, the exhibition’s venue, told The Jordan Times.

The artist’s eclectic approach to art has made his work span from graphics to paintings and etching, leading him to work with all kinds of materials, he said.

As one of the founders of the Jordanian Plastic Artist Association in the late 1970s, the main representative institution of the fine arts in the Kingdom, Dwaik has also dedicated a large part of his career to supporting art education in the Kingdom, Jaloos added.

“Back then, we were a small group of artists working together and supporting each other. Today, I am happy that more and more students are joining my classes at the University of Jordan and have a perfect knowledge of art and come up with their own original ideas,” Dwaik said.

Looking at his latest work hanging on the gallery’s walls characterised by abstract patchworks of different materials and covered with enamel, the 73-year-old artist said his production has always been, and will always be, in constant evolution.

“I am an artist; therefore, I need to constantly think in different ways, looking at things from a different perspective and employing new techniques. I always look for new styles, subjects, materials and keep changing them all the time. My work changes every time as my feelings do.”

NEW DELHI — Several Jordanian officials are due in India in the near future to discuss bilateral relations, with defence cooperation as the main issue, according to a senior Indian official.

Salman Khurshid, Indian minister for external affairs, said his country has distinguished relations with Jordan, adding that several meetings are planned to develop these ties further.

“With Jordan we have a two-way investment, and we have a very good relationship with the Royal family,” Khurshid said at a meeting last week with journalists from West Asia and North Africa (WANA).

The minister said a delegation representing the Royal Jordanian National Defence College will visit India soon to discuss cooperation in the field of defence and to be familiarised with Indian defence schools.

In addition, Khurshid noted that his country is preparing to receive Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, but “we are working on the dates for his visit.”

“We [are also] considering cooperation in the fields of information technology and financial services,” the official said in reply to a question by The Jordan Times.

The Indian foreign minister said WANA countries are important to his nation, which is closely watching changes in the region.

“You come from a region that is important to us, and your people should decide for themselves, and whatever you decide will be acknowledged by us,” Khurshid told journalists representing Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Yemen.

The minister noted that there are 7 million Indians working in WANA countries, and this channels more than $70 billion to the Indian economy.

He added that almost 60 per cent of “our oil supplies come from your region. We heavily depend on your countries. You are good friends and good partners.”

Khurshid said the trade volume between India and the countries of the region stands at $180 billion.

Meanwhile, E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan, minister of state for commerce and industry, noted that more than 10,000 Indians currently work in the Kingdom’s textile and health sectors, as more than 20 factories in Jordan are run by Indians.

Indian investments in the Kingdom, he said, are estimated at $60 million.

“The exchange of visits between our countries will further strengthen economic cooperation,” Natchiappan said, adding: “We are happy to have further talks to help in this aspect.”

AMMAN — The All Jordan Youth Commission is working on establishing offices in badia areas and camps in order to reach as many young people as possible.

The aim behind the commission’s upcoming step is to communicate with young Jordanians in the governorates and remote areas, giving them the opportunity to take part in voluntary activities and discover their inner talents, the commission’s director, Sami Al Maitah said.

“Young people in the capital already have so many chances, we want to provide as many programmes as possible for Jordanians in the governorates, because there is a lack of opportunities there,” he told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

Established in September 2006, the impetus for the commission came during an annual conference held for young people to meet with His Majesty King Abdullah to discuss several issues, according to Maitah.

“The commission is affiliated with the King Abdullah II Fund for Development,” he said, noting that the commission’s activities cover all the country’s regions.

“The commission is successful because it does not impose ideas on young people; it receives their ideas and projects and implements them,” Maitah said, adding that the commission is open for all youths in the Kingdom.

Its activities cover economic and political empowerment, in addition to voluntary and social work.

“For example, the commission implemented around 250 activities, with the participation of 75,458 young Jordanians during the parliamentary and municipal elections between 2007 and 2013,” Maitah said.

The commission holds voluntary activities during national occasions instead of organising concerts, he said.

“We want to hold events that benefit society and youths in general.”

Moreover, the commission took advantage of last December’s blizzard by signing an agreement with the Civil Defence Department (CDD) to train young people on how to deal with severe weather conditions.

“During the snowstorm, the commission’s volunteers helped CDD personnel open roads that were blocked due to accumulated snow, so we thought we should train young people in the governorates to enable them to face such conditions in the future,” he added.

Despite what has been achieved so far, Maitah stressed that young Jordanians cannot assume their rightful role as the builders of the country’s future as long as officials disregard their potential.

“Young people’s role is really significant and most of the challenges society faces are related to their issues,” he noted.

Maitah added that the commission established a unit to address women’s issues and organise several activities targeting women in Jordan.

The commission is currently working on organising a national conference with the aim of discussing young people’s outlook towards reform and the Elections Law, he added.

“We also want to hold activities to link young Jordanians who reside outside the Kingdom with their compatriots in the country,” Maitah said.