By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN - Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania on Tuesday visited a society serving the physically challenged and called for expanding its role.

During the visit to Al Hussein Society for the Habilitation/Rehabilitation of the Physically Challenged, the King donated the cost of projects to improve the establishment, including maintenance work to the facility, Internet connectivity and the completion of a central heating system.

The King commended the society's role in supporting physically challenged people, especially children, pinpointing the need to set up branches for the society across the Kingdom to serve more citizens with special needs.

HRH Princess Majda Raad, the society's president, briefed Their Majesties on the society's mission. She also shed light on new units created at the society, including research, media, early intervention and occupational therapy and physiotherapy departments.

The society, which offers basic education to some 100 students, relies totally on donors to sustain its programmes, according to Annie Medzhagopian Abu Hanna, the society’s executive director, who said that each beneficiary costs the society JD500 a month.

"The main challenge that we face is that we heavily rely on donations. This affects the sustainability of services. We need a fixed and a constant source of funding to sustain our services," Abu Hanna told reporters following the King's visit.

This is important as the organisation is ambitious to become a regional training centre in the field of rehabilitation, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychosocial counselling and other related services, she added.

Nisreen Qatarneh, an employee at the society for four years now, said: "Although the society is doing great as per the services and treatment, there are several shortages and the salaries are low because of the limited resources."

She said she receives JD200 a month.

In addition, she said, the equipment, including those in the play areas are worn out and need to be replaced with new, up-to-date pieces. The society also needs standardised assessment devises to better evaluate progress in the treated cases.

Children at the society, who expressed excitement at the King's visit, were thankful for what the society offers them.

Mohammad Jihad, a nine-year-old who studies at the society's school, said: "I am comfortable here. I like the school and the games and I have lots of friends."

The Kingdom has recently launched the JD65 million National Strategy for People with Disabilities, which seeks to reduce the rate of disabilities in the country and enhance the quality of life for the disabled.

The plan, which will be implemented over two stages, is designed to lower disability rates by 5 per cent during the first phase and 15 per cent by the end of the second phase in 2015.

The 2004 population and housing data indicates that the disability rate in the country stands at 1.23 per cent of the population. The 2005 World Bank report on international disability rates, however, puts the rate at a minimum of 4.5 per cent, which accounts for 194,000 people with disabilities.