Continuation of the efforts of the Ministry of Labour to protect children from economic exploitation, and in implementation of the national legislation, policies and international conventions that were ratified by Jordan, and emphasizing the need to unite national efforts to reduce child labour due to the seriousness of this phenomenon. An arrangement was reached between the Ministry of Labour, which is the concerned authority in limiting child labour and chairs the national efforts exerted in this, and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, through a memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties on 10th of December 2007, which aimed at reducing child labour and establishing a private social support center with children working in Sahab city. It is considered the executive arm of the Ministry in the field of reducing child labour, and the Ministry provides funding to the Fund in implementation of the project from the Ministry’s budget within the labour market restructuring program, which amounts to 300,000 dinars.
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As a complement to the achievements made through the project between the Ministry and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund, the memorandum was renewed on 06/06/2010, in addition to the signing of two annexes, the first in 2012 and the second in 2015.
Project objective:
- Reducing child labour.
- Rehabilitate and integrate working children and ensure that they receive free education or appropriate rehabilitation.
- Preventing and protecting working/dropping children who are vulnerable to early entry into the labour market.
- Promoting an understanding of the problem of child labour in society.
- Enhancing community awareness of the phenomenon of child labour and its impact on them.
The center offers the following programs to withdraw and rehabilitate the cases that are discovered from the working/dropout children:
- The educational program with its two parts: promoting the culture of dropouts through special classes inside the center as part of the program of withdrawal from the labour market and rehabilitation.Return to school: as part of precaution and prevention. These programs are carried out in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Education in a separate memorandum.
- The program of psychological and social counseling for children and their families: to modify the behavior of children and contribute to finding solutions to their individual, group and family problems, developing, and building their capacities and providing psychological and social support to them and their families.
- Social Survey Program: which is concerned with studying the conditions of cases transferred to the center, conducting field surveys, carrying out family social studies and following up on working/dropout children, in addition to developing a special database on working children through the survey team at the center and in cooperation with the inspectors of the Ministry of Labour, especially the child labor liaison officers.
- Integrated Services Program (Health/Social/Economic): It is a preventive and curative program that aims to provide specialized services for children and their families and to find economic alternatives for needy families, in addition to find financial alternatives for the families of these children by linking them to the National Aid Fund, donor aid funds or small income-generating projects. Contributing to creating job opportunities for the head of the family, and intervening to solve the health, social and educational problems that children and their families suffer from, in cooperation with the private and voluntary community sectors through transfer and follow-up.
- Various Educational and Recreational Programs: to raise and build children's abilities, social and life skills, and develop their talents.
- Vocational Training Program: In cooperation with the Vocational Training Corporation, it is linked to its instructions, including vocational guidance and direction, within a special memorandum of understanding.
The achievements of the Social Support Center under the Memorandum of Understanding are summarized in the coverage of the Capital Governorate Amman, Zarqa and Brigade Al-Rusaifa since 2008, which has provided services to about 10,000 children since its establishment and is based on the provision of services by about 51 employees and 7 facilitators seconded from the Ministry of Education.