Norwegian foreign minister pays visit to UNRWA health centre, school in Amman

AMMAN — Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide on Tuesday visited a health centre and school run by UNRWA in Amman. 

She was accompanied by Acting UNRWA Commissioner-General Christian Saunders and Director of UNRWA Affairs in Jordan Mohammed Adar, according to an UNRWA statement sent to The Jordan Times.

At the Antenatal Care Centre in Amman New Camp in the south of the capital, Søreide was briefed on the agency’s health programme, especially services that seek to improve maternal health, mitigate health risks for pregnant women and newborn children and promote general reproductive health, the statement said. 

She later met the students and staff of the UNRWA Amman New Camp Preparatory Girls School and engaged in a "lively discussion" with a group of students representing the school parliament from that area about their dreams and future plans.

“Jordan is an important partner to Palestine refugees and UNRWA. I appreciate this opportunity to visit New Amman Camp, to meet some of the inhabitants and to visit their school, library and health clinic,” Søreide said in the statement.

"The renewal of UNRWA’s mandate must be accompanied by sufficient funding, enabling UNRWA to deliver basic services to the refugees. We encourage other donors, not least the countries in the Gulf, to maintain or increase their contributions and transfer their support as soon as possible,” she added.

On the occasion of the minister's visit, Norway disbursed its contribution of around $13.3 million to the UNRWA core budget, according to the statement.

Jordan hosts more than two million registered Palestinian refugees, the highest number of all of the UNRWA fields. There are 10 recognised Palestinian refugee camps throughout the country, accommodating nearly 400,000 people, the statement said. 

UNRWA also extends its health, education, social and other services to nearly 17,000 Palestine refugees from Syria (PRS) who have fled the conflict and who, for the most part, are believed to suffer from abject poverty and a precarious legal status. 

UNRWA is working to accommodate PRS children in its schools and to provide relief and health care to those in need.

“We truly value Norway as a donor and as a partner in our efforts to alleviate the plight of Palestine refugees, but also in understanding that UNRWA plays a key stabilising role in the region, primarily by providing reliable and predictable services to 5.6 million Palestine refugees,” Saunders said in the statement.