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AMMAN — HRH Crown Prince Hussein on Tuesday visited the Muwafaq Salti Airbase, where he was received by Royal Air Force (RAF) Commander Maj. Gen. Pilot Yousef Hneiti and senior officers.

The Crown Prince listened to a briefing presented by the airbase commander on the process of training, technical and operational aspects and tasks implemented by base personnel and their efforts in defending the Kingdom, according to a Royal Court statement.

The commander also stressed the high level of preparedness at the airbase, as well as the advanced level of air defences, which helps the base perform its duties more efficiently in defending the country.

Prince Hussein also had a first-hand look at upgrading and modification processes on F16 aircrafts and attended the takeoff of several F16’s affiliated with the RAF.

The Crown Prince expressed his pride in the advanced level and high morale of the airbase’s personnel and their competence in implementing tasks.

AMMAN — At the end of a lavish Ramadan buffet in the banquet hall of one of Amman’s five-star hotels, a young Jordanian charity worker rushes to gather up left-over food that his team of volunteers will package and redistribute to needy families.

Bandar Sharif began his “Family Kitchen” initiative ten years ago, angered by the amount of food thrown away by hotels during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, traditionally a period when consumption levels double across the region.

“What we do is eliminate this waste, we salvage the food and provide it to people who are in desperate need of it,” said Sharif, a 33-year-old teacher.

His team of volunteers now works all year round to collect unwanted food from large wedding parties, bakeries and restaurants.

This year the initiative has focused on the Palestinian refugee camp of Baqaa, one of the depressed areas in a country that has seen some of the biggest protests in years this month over steep price hikes, which are backed by the International Monetary Fund.

Critics say the price hikes are to blame for rising poverty in Jordan.

Family Kitchen’s initiative this year provides “Iftar” meals — eaten by Muslims after sunset during the holy month of Ramadan — to 500 families in the impoverished refugee camp on the outskirts of Amman.

A third of the camp’s 120,000 residents have an income below the national poverty line and around 17 per cent are unemployed, the UN refugee body says.

“Our families are very poor, there is a lot of poverty in the community, so they need this support, they need these meals in order to ensure that they have food the next day,” said Kifah Khamis, who runs a charity in the sprawling camp. 

One camp resident, Um Thair, a mother of four, said she could not have coped without the meals delivered to her family. 

“I was able to save money. During Ramadan I didn’t have to buy a lot of food or shop a lot, we got most of our meals from the charity, we would come everyday and get our Iftar meal,” she said. 

AMMAN — The Education Ministry is implementing several free-of-charge summer activities for school students to “invest their time in something useful and sharpen their personalities”, a ministry official said on Monday.

The ministry’s activities include the national summer camp “Basma”, scout camps and football tournaments, as well as opening schools’ play yards to the public, the ministry’s director of the activities department, Abdulkarim Yamani, told The Jordan Times.

For the second edition of the summer camp “Basma” (“imprint” in Arabic), 140 schools across the Kingdom will open their doors to a total of 50,000 ninth-and-tenth-graders, who will be able to enjoy several sports, arts, musical, social, cultural and technical activities, amongst others, Yamani said.

“We targeted these grades because they mark the teenage period, which is the end of the childhood phase and the beginning of the youth phase,” he noted, stressing the importance of “giving care and attention to teenagers so as to invest their energy in something useful”.

The national camp will also include military training and educational courses, as well as several lectures on topics such as the threats of narcotics, fighting, bullying and cyber crimes, administering first aid and basics of public safety.  

On the sports activities, which include football tournaments for all elementary and intermediate grades, Yamani said: “Sports to students is as important as water to any human. Sports teach children more than what schoolbooks do as it counters violence and teaches them cooperation, altruism, and the spirit of accepting losses as much as they would enjoy winning.”

For Arwa Hatem, a mother of three, “the summer vacation is very long, and most private summer camps are very costly, so it would be great if students could enjoy such activities in their schools and with their peers”. 

“These activities strengthen our children’s personalities, which are not only shaped through school classes but also through human interactions,” she added.

Sibling students Sura and Ammar Hamed welcomed the idea of these summer activities, expressing enthusiasm for the scheduled events.

“It is great to meet our friends outside [a] studying framework where we can play and enjoy our time together,” Ammar said. 

For social adviser at an Amman public school Ibtisam Jarabaah, “when students drop out of any school-related activities for the entire summer, they usually come back with a lazy mind and find difficulty in getting back to their previous energetic state.”

“Therefore, there should be a continuous connection between the student and his/her school,” she told The Jordan Times.

The national summer camp, which will run between July 19 and August 18, is implemented in cooperation with the Crown Prince Foundation, the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Youth Ministry, the Public Security Department, the Civil Defence Department and the Gendarmerie, among other public and private institutions.

AMMAN — Proving that everyone can give a helping hand in the spirit of the holy month, a group of people with intellectual disabilities has been distributing dates and water to drivers around the capital around Iftar (fast-breaking meal).

Organised by the local NGO Sana For Special Individuals under an idea by job coach Suhaib Hamadneh, the 8-day event was part of the organisation’s regular events to raise awareness of people with intellectual disabilities in society.

“As a job coach for people with intellectual challenges, these distributions seemed to me like a great opportunity to transition from the work experience they received in our work programme to some kind of field work,” recalled Hamadneh, who said that the group of participants only included older individuals from the work programme due to “safety and legal reasons”.   

“Every person with an intellectual disability was matched with a volunteer and we ensured a strictly supervised distribution, where all the parents and volunteers were fully aware of the requirements and conditions of the activities,” he told The Jordan Times, explaining for instance that “we only carried out distribution when the traffic light was red and we received some cooperation from a civilian-clothed traffic police official”.

Each water and dates package was accompanied by an awareness note reading: “I am a person just like you; what makes me special is that I have an intellectual disability and my society is better with your acceptance of me in it.”

“We want to show that even someone with a disability can take part in doing good,” said Serene Qubein Qushair, board member at Sana, stressing that “integration of our children into society — be it in schools, public areas or supermarkets — is a challenge, since our kids are often not accepted or are faced with pity or judgment. Raising awareness is an integral part in facing this challenge and helps create lifelong acceptance”.

After distributing the dates and water at traffic lights, an annual tradition performed by volunteers across the Kingdom throughout the holy month, the group shared an Iftar meal together, celebrating a time of sharing and inclusivity. 

Volunteer Ahmad Abdelhadi voiced his happiness to participate in this initiative, which he described as “a new and beautiful idea that gives us a simple way to show our support to people with special needs, and make them feel that they are like us in anything”.

He said he was “surprised” to see so many drivers startled by the initiative. “People are not used to this kind of acts and they were very surprised to see us all distribute water and dates,” Abdelhadi, who started volunteering after he heard about the idea from his friend Suhaib Hamadneh, told The Jordan Times.

Two groups of people took part in the 8-day distribution, which will conclude on Wednesday night, as the Eid Al Fitr holiday is expected to begin, marking the end of the fasting month.

“We separated the kids into two groups so that they are not away from their families every day. Some did the Friday, Sunday, Tuesday distribution while others did Saturday, Monday and Wednesday,” Qubein Qushair, whose 9-year-old son Rakan  participated, told The Jordan Times.

“Honestly, the smiles on their faces were there all along and they were so happy to take part in the distribution,” Abdelhadi rejoiced after one donation, stressing “people with intellectual disabilities are our brothers and our friends and I really hope that such actions can contribute to supporting them in being fully integrated in society”.

The event was made possible through the donations of IM Swedish Development, a partner of the organisation. “They paid for the bus picking up the group, printing our flyers and for the Iftar dinner for all,” said Qubein Qushair, voicing her appreciation for the George and Sami Khoury company which provided the dates and water for free as well.

Founded in 2010, Sana For Special Individuals works to better the lives of families of children with intellectual disabilities by providing them with moral, financial and technical support, according to its board of directors. 

AMMAN — The Charity Clothing Bank, which is part of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO), will provide clothes and shoes to approximately 15,000 less fortunate people during this coming Eid Al Fitr.

Despite working all year long, the Charity Clothing Bank and other JHCO projects witness increased activity and a rise in donations during the holy month of Ramadan, according to the head of the Charity Clothing Bank Rawan Masaadeh.

This Ramadan, the bank held its “My Size” campaign for the fourth consecutive year, an initiative through which the Charity Clothing Bank partners with local boutiques and shops to provide clothes and shoes for the less fortunate.

Donations are accepted from individuals and companies, either in cash or in the form of clothes and shoes, Masaadeh told The Jordan Times, noting that the donations can be made at donation points distributed across several malls and points of sale around the city.

“I donated to the charity at City Mall, which is next to my house. It was an easy process, which is great because the thing that stops me from donating is always the need to drive to charities in places that are very far,” said Luna Hisham, a translator living in Amman.

Masaadeh noted that approximately 65 per cent of the clothes donated to the charity are “untouched, new material”.

“There are several big-name brands that donate out-of-season clothing that is completely new to the bank,” she said, noting that the only requirement is that the labels be removed, for company-related policies and privacy issues.

The remaining 35 per cent of used clothing is taken to the clothes sorting centre, where they go through a detailed process of sorting and categorisation, the charity head said, noting that they are then taken to contracted dry-cleaning companies which do the job for free.

People who benefit from the Charity Clothing Bank’s services are mostly individuals enlisted in the National Aid Fund and registered with local organisations, she said, noting that the bank asks the chosen families to come to the nearest bank location to pick out their items. 

In cases when people are unable to reach any of the Charity Clothing Bank’s locations, the bank collaborates with local charities to distribute boxes, usually containing 100 pieces of clothing, to the area.

“When I went to donate, the boxes were overflowing with clothes, some new, but some were unappealing. I don’t think that such campaigns have control over what people donate: after all, they are just a medium. The best they can do is raise awareness and carry out [a] detailed process when picking what to give away,” said Marah Alkhasawneh, a member of a UN agency concerned with similar clothes donation campaigns for refugees.

Asked why some reviewers expressed dissatisfaction towards the clothing material on the Charity Clothing Bank’s Facebook page, Masaadeh replied: “Most people expect completely new clothes all the time, which is an unrealistic expectation to have regarding any JHCO service.”

“All our clothes are well-picked and usable, as well as being almost always new,” she concluded.

AMMAN — The coalition of pan-Arab and leftist parties on Monday met with Prime Minister-designate Omar Razzaz to discuss the government’s reform programme and the parties’ demands, a statement from the coalition said on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Razzaz presented his vision on the parliamentary government, institutionalising the national dialogue, maintaining dialogue with the political parties and all society segments, reviewing the tax system and recognising citizens’ right to peacefully express their demands. For their part, representatives of the parties stressed the need to ensure the accountability of the executive authority, monitoring it and following up on its pledged reform programme.

The statement listed a number of demands, among them commitment to withdrawing the income tax draft Law, cancelling the amendments of the Civil Services Law, revisiting the taxation system including the Sales and Income Tax Laws, as well as reconsidering the legislation related to the “exclusive and monopolistic” parliamentary Election Law, criminalising political detention and revising the “freedom-undermining” cybercrime law. 

AMMAN — The Ministry of Finance on Tuesday said they have completed all the necessary measures to disburse June salaries before Eid Al Fitr holiday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The salaries will be disbursed to the public employees and retirees of the military and civil agencies as well as the beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund from Tuesday till Wednesday in order to enable citizens to buy their needs before the holiday, according to Petra. 

AMMAN — The Jabal Amman Residents Association (JARA) has announced that the 14th Souk JARA will kick off on June 22 and continue until September 28, the Jordan News agency, Petra, reported.

The 14th edition of Souk JARA will feature a number of unique merchandise, such as handicrafts and handmade items, garments, souvenirs, accessories, and pottery amongst others in addition to various cultural and artistic activities in Jabal Amman area.

“The seasonal souk, which is considered the largest in the Kingdom, attracts thousands of locals, expats, and foreign visitors,” said Khader Qawwas, acting president of JARA, adding that “this year’s addition hosts more than 150 craftsmen and artists who will showcase their products”. 

AMMAN — Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on Tuesday praised the support pledged by Gulf states to Jordan at the Mecca summit earlier this week to mitigate the Kingdom’s economic crisis, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

According to a Tunisian statement distributed by the Tunisian embassy in Amman on Tuesday, Essebsi followed with great interest the convening of the Mecca summit and the resulting decisions.

The president praised the summit as a tangible embodiment of Arab solidarity, stressing the importance of the unity of Arab ranks in facing various challenges. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait had announced at the end of the Mecca summit, held on Sunday, an economic aid to Jordan worth $2.5 billion.

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a December  Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to three years in prison after convicting him of molesting a teenager in January 2017.

The court declared the defendant guilty of molesting a 17-year-old boy by grabbing his bottom while in the street on January 7.

The court also ordered the defendant to pay JD1,000 in fines.

Court papers said the defendant met the victim via Facebook and “started sending him pornographic photos”. He then asked to meet with the teenage boy, who informed his family about the incident.

“The victim’s father and his other sons decided to allow the teenager to meet with the defendant to see what his intentions were while closely monitoring their meeting,” the court said, adding “on the day of the incident, the defendant and the victim met, while the father and brothers were monitoring them from a distance.”

The defendant informed the victim that he wanted to “engage in sexual activities with him” and then “grabbed the victim’s butt all of a sudden and uttered obscene words”, the court added.

The victim managed to lure the defendant to his father’s shop as agreed with him previously and the police were notified about the matter, according to court documents.  

The defendant contested the Criminal Court’s ruling, arguing that “the victim and his family filed a false complaint to blackmail him and his family for some cash”.

However, the Higher Court ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedures when sentencing the defendant and that he deserved the verdict he received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin Abdullat, Hamad Ghzawi and Majid Azab.