Khaberni - The head of the Irbid Greater Municipality committee, Imad Al-Azzam discussed with a delegation representing the Dutch Van Leer Foundation, areas of joint cooperation to provide an urban environment suitable for the service and care of children in early childhood, and support for caregivers.
Al-Azzam emphasized the importance of providing quality services to citizens of all categories, especially children and the elderly, stressing on developing the service role of the municipality to also include the social dimension, particularly concerning services for women, mothers, and their children.
On her part, the representative of Van Leer in Jordan, Farah Jadalallah, presented a showcase of the foundation’s most prominent achievements in cooperation with the Irbid Greater Municipality, which included establishing early childhood and family stations in several municipal parks and preparing the Al-Ashrafiyah Park in the area of Al-Baraha, in addition to executing programs for building the capacities of municipal staff in the fields of childcare.
The program coordinator at the foundation, Alia Rawashdeh, spoke about the comprehensiveness of the programs provided by the foundation, confirming that designing child-friendly cities means preparing them to be suitable for all social categories, especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with disabilities.
For his part, the Director of Parks and Agriculture at the municipality, Engineer Qasim Al-Rousan, emphasized the importance of early childhood and family stations and their positive impact on park visitors, pointing to the local communities’ engagement with the activities provided by the municipal staff at these stations.
The meeting concluded with discussions about the upcoming projects that Van Leer intends to implement in cooperation with the municipality, affirming the necessity of including the requirements and needs of the local communities in Irbid in the priorities of future plans and policies.
