Project to enhance rights and access to services in Jordan launched

AMMAN — Under the patronage of HH Prince Mired, president of the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (HCD), CBM Christoffel Blind Mission and the HCD on Sunday launched a project titled “Enhancing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and their Access to Services” (ERAS) in Jordan. 

The project, which will be implemented in Mafraq, Tafileh and Karak/Ghor Al Safi over a period of three years, in cooperation with the Health Care Accreditation Council (HCAC), aims to enhance the access of persons with disabilities to quality community-based inclusive development (CBID) services, according to a CBM statement. 

The multi-phased project includes several components, including the development of CBID services to be provided by community-based organisations (CBOs), services relating to rehabilitation and counselling, as well as services pertaining to screening and physiotherapy, occupational therapy and family counselling.

Phase one of the project includes the implementation of an assessment of the status quo of the community-based rehabilitation, organisational and home-based services provided by the CBOs in the targeted governorates as a starting point towards the eventual development of CBID programmes within those areas, along with conducting access renovations and adaptions to the relevant facilities to ensure they are accessible to people with disabilities, as well as training the cadres of those organisations.

During the launching ceremony, at HCD’s headquarters in Amman, Prince Mired lauded the partnership with CBM and their direct support of the HCD, as well as the joint efforts geared towards promoting CBID as a means through which people with disabilities can better access community-based services independently.

CBM Eastern Mediterranean Programme Manager Omar Alsaket spoke of the significance of CBM’s partnership with the HCD so as to provide state of the art services for people with disabilities. 

Alsaket also underscored the need for future planning to promote and strengthen community-based services that are supportive of people with disabilities in a credible and sustainable manner. 

He noted that CBM’s new 2030 strategy highlights community support services (CSS) as one of its core priorities, stressing that Jordan is equipped as “a model area in community-based rehabilitation”.

Director of Accreditation at the HCAC Thaera Madi stressed the role of HCAC as “a pioneering national institution” working in the field of standard development and accreditation in healthcare both nationally and regionally, commending the partnership between HCAC and HCD.

CBM is one of the leading international organisations for inclusive development. It supports persons with disabilities throughout the world and has been doing so for more than 110 years.

Together with its local partners, CBM ensures that their lives are fundamentally and permanently improved. It provides medical aid to those in need and advocates for the equal participation in society of persons with disabilities. Its goal is an inclusive world in which people with and without disabilities can contribute and no one is left behind. Last year, CBM supported 492 projects in 46 countries.

HCD on the other hand is an effective and inclusive specialised national institution working to promote the inherent rights of persons with disabilities in all aspects of life, and ensure their full enjoyment of these rights on an equal basis with others. It was established in 2008 by virtue of the then Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Number 31 for the Year 2007.