Development project turns vacant building in Salt into kindergarten

AMMAN — Mercy Corps and local partners on Thursday held an opening ceremony of the Halima Al Saadia Kindergarten in Salt Governorate after the completion of an expansion and furnishing project in cooperation with the Salt Education Directorate. 

The kindergarten includes four classrooms. The opening ceremony was attended by key representatives of the local community, according to a Mercy Corps statement sent to The Jordan Times.  

This project falls under the Leadership and Community Development Programme, funded by UK Aid, where various rehabilitation services were carried out to turn a vacant building in the city of Salt into a kindergarten for the local community, the statement said.

The building was selected with guidance from the Ministry of Social Development. The construction and maintenance work spanned over 120 days, according to the statement. 

The project manager, Heba Asaad, indicated that based on the results of the recent needs assessment, conducted by Mercy Corps in cooperation with local communities, there are still significant needs in local communities, which are considered very important in light of the long-term effects of the COVID pandemic. 

In Salt, it was found that parents in the local community suffer from a lack of suitable public kindergartens, which forces them to enroll their children in private kindergartens and incur high enrollment fees. 

The director of the Salt Education Directorate, Haroun Rahahleh, praised the cooperation between the directorate, Mercy Corps and the UK embassy in Jordan. 

He emphasised the pivotal role the Salt Education Directorate played in facilitating the procedures to establish this project and their efforts to allocate land to implement this much-needed community project.

The Leadership and Community Development Programme, which has been implemented by Mercy Corps with the support of UK Aid since 2014, aims to support participatory and responsive governance structures by seeking to bridge the gap between citizens and the government, the statement said.

Activities focus on the effectiveness and efficiency of local governance and the comprehensiveness of its services to meet the most pressing needs in society, in addition to enhancing civic participation by engaging them in the decision-making process.