By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN - For Zaina Dirani, volunteering is her way of making a difference and supporting vulnerable children who need help.

Dirani was one of 20 volunteers whose efforts were recognised on Thursday as the Kingdom joined the world in celebrating International Volunteer Day, marked annually on December 4.

“I started volunteering at children’s camps as a team leader when I was 16 years old; from there my enthusiasm for voluntary work grew and I searched for places where my experience could be put to use,” Dirani said on Thursday, during a ceremony organised by the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Programme in Jordan to honour volunteers from different institutions.

The 23-year-old volunteer said she later worked at Dar Al Aman, the child safety centre affiliated with the Jordan River Foundation, where she taught children English.

Dar Al Aman was established in 2000 to provide shelter and care for sexually, physically and emotionally abused children who are evaluated and treated before being integrated into their rehabilitated families.

“We also used to visit parents of abused children and talk to them to raise their awareness on ways of treating their offspring,” Dirani told The Jordan Times.

Currently, she is one of the Injaz Programme volunteers who train students in public schools on community skills that will help them when they enter the labour market.

“It is rewarding to feel that you are helping, even if it means helping one child,” Dirani said.

HRH Princess Basma, who was an honorary person for the International Year of Volunteers in 2001, on Thursday underscored “the remarkable progress of the volunteer movement” since the UNV Programme was introduced to Jordan in 2000.

“Since its inception in Jordan… UNV has been at the forefront of promoting volunteer work… to recognise the innumerable contributions of volunteers,” she said.

“I am so pleased to be with you on this significant day, to acknowledge and celebrate the often insufficiently appreciated, yet invaluable role that volunteers consistently play with commitment and determination, to eradicate poverty and hunger, advance equality and human development, and to respond to disaster,” the Princess noted.

Among those honoured at the ceremony was a Korean volunteer, Ga Won Kim, who told The Jordan Times that she started her voluntary work in Jordan in December last year through the Korean International Cooperation Agency.

“I train Jordan Valley Authority employees on graphic design and other computer and information technology skills,” said the volunteer, who was dressed in her national costume yesterday.

According to UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Kingdom Luc Stevens, there is an urgent need, now more than ever, to promote and harness volunteerism for development “if we are to make the Millennium Development Goals a reality by 2015”.

He noted that four Jordanians currently serve as UNV volunteers in Sudan and Liberia.