Maan carnival 'brings joy' to orphaned children across governorate

AMMAN — Dozens of orphaned children on Friday got the chance to break from their routines at “The Good Carnival”, an initiative launched by the Princess Basma Centre for Development in Maan, which aims at providing children from the governorate with psychological and moral support through leisure time activities.

Implemented through the centre’s youth committees across the governorate, the initiative seeks to “draw smiles and joy on children's faces and to alleviate their feelings of deprivation and isolation”, according to a press release by the centre. 

"The youth committees are aware of their humanitarian role during the holy month of Ramadan and of the importance of providing both moral and material support to the most unprivileged groups in our local community,” head of the centre’s youth committees Fahed Lejan said during the event, stressing the organisation's belief in "its mission towards society".

Launched on the occasion of Jordan’s 72nd Independence Day, the carnival saw the participation of several decision makers from Maan Governorate, including the head of the operations and training department at the Maan Police Directorate, Col. Adel Al Khalidi, and head of the security centre, Lt. Col. Mohammed Al Basaemeh. 

“The environment within which children grow in Maan is cooperative, and members of the society are always ready to provide a helping hand to others, but the municipalities suffer from a lack of financial support,” Lejan told The Jordan Times, noting that "they lack public entertainment places to spend their leisure time, and that adds to the spread of poverty in this area of Jordan.”

He said this is why they chose to do this event during Ramadan, which is "the month of compassion and goodness”.

“I felt very happy today because I was able to make new friends, and I loved the games we played,” said Abood, one of the children who took part in the activity. 

Col. Al Khalidi stressed that “launched in cooperation with the civil society, these initiatives consolidate the principles of our community policy to communicate and cooperate with all segments of society”.