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HM Queen Noor's interview with Rashid Pediatric Therapy Center. 1996 Q1. What is the extent of the efforts of the public and private sector in limiting disabilities and protecting the Jordanian child from disease? Jordan has 110 private, governmental and non-governmental centers, such as Families and Friends Society of the Disabled, The Mental Health Society, the Society for the Care of the Disabled and the Jordanian Society for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, to help the disabled and currently benefit around 10,000 disabled Jordanians. We are also fortunate to have the first and only Occupational Therapy College in the Arab Middle East, which was established in 1989 as a joint project between the Armed Forces' Royal Medical Services and the General Union of Voluntary Societies (GUVS). The College, in one year's time, will offer students a bachelors degree in occupational therapy instead of the current three-year diploma. Studies by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have stressed the importance of early detection, intervention and occupational therapy, which can prevent a disability from turning into a serious physical, sensory or mental handicap. The Noor Al Hussein Foundation, which I established in 1985, founded the Institute for Child Health and Development in 1986 with the support of the Swedish "Save the Children" to raise child health care standards in Jordan by improving growth monitoring, diagnosis and treatment practices. It is the first and only facility to monitor and assess child growth and development. It conducts primary field research among children, and provides information to parents and teachers to increase awareness of early signs of childhood diseases and disabilities. The Institute includes a model Mother and Child Health (MCH) Clinic and also has a Child Development Unit, which provides development assessment and supervision of minor and moderate disabilities through play therapy, and designs programs to improve the monitoring of physical health, psychological and social needs of children under the age of six. It has an aggressive outreach program that provides follow-up care and education for new mothers and the entire family on hygiene, nutrition, family planning and proper methods of breast feeding. Harvard University's Institute for Social and Economics Policy in the Middle East cited the Institute as a model for its comprehensive approach and described its "psycho-social" services as the best of any country in the region. Consequently, many non-governmental organizations in Jordan are focusing on early intervention in the field of disabilities. GUVS, for examples, has initiated an experimental project in Zerqa and Rusaifah where social workers and psychologists visited and worked with 300 families with disabled children. The program is developing a 5 year plan whereby 50,000 disabled children ranging from 1 day to 6 months old will be treated at home at a cost of 25 JD per year versus the centers' monthly rate of 200 JD. Q2. "Wars and also wars are the principal reason in the increase in the percentage of the disabled ..." What is your opinion about this? How do we color the map of the world green and spread peace and love? I have publicly expressed my concern at the impact of war on children at the 1990 World Summit for Children, which had coincided with the build up of conflict in the region, and most recently last January, at the regional launching of the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) "State of the World's Children 1996". As I have stressed before, we need to re-direct military resources for development especially in the Arab world, which has lost 120, 000 children to conflict in the past decade. According to the "State of the World's Children 1996" more than 2 million children have been killed, 4-5 million disabled, 12 million homeless, 1 million orphaned and 10 million psychologically traumatized in the past decade. Respect for children and commitment to their welfare are key to humanitarian and political progress and I urge all countries to implement the report's anti-war agenda, which includes banning the production, use and sale of land-mines, the systematic report of war crimes against women and children, raising the age at which children can be conscripted into armed forces, monitoring the effects of economic sanctions on children and promoting the principle of "children as zones of peace." Q3. How can one push the Higher Council for the Arab Child to achieve more for Arab children especially with respect to early intervention projects? We should promote the formulation of multidisciplinary teams, which would include doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. For example, as the Honorary President of the Jordan Physiotherapy Association, I am very concerned by the absence of physiotherapy training in Jordan and find it essential to establish rehabilitative departments in public and private universities, which would teach physiotherapy as well as occupational and speech therapy and would award the graduates university degrees rather than diplomas. We also need to establish regional research and assessment centers for the early detection and treatment of childhood disabilities and to increase the rehabilitative centers for the disabled. Due to our region's young population and high rates of fertility and population growth, it is likely that today's 13 to 15 million disabled Arab nationals may reach 20 million by the year 2000. I do not wish to pain a totally bleak picture of our region, which can boast several notable achievements such as steadily rising infant and child immunization rates, resulting in corresponding decline in infant-related disabilities, a sharp increase in social action by private and non-governmental groups, the impact of education on traditional attitudes to inter-marriage and dealing with disabled family members and finally greater sensitivity to the special needs of the disabled in day-to-day life. Full integration of the disabled should go beyond traditional efforts to help them adapt to their environment through training and rehabilitation. As a society, we must adapt the physical and social environment to the needs of the disabled, particularly in planing projects undertaken by the public sector. This would allow them to enjoy greater independence and self-reliance, which are an essential first step towards their full integration in society. Q4. A last word for the Arab mother to promote a safe childhood. I encourage all mothers to breast feed their babies as I breast-fed my children as long as possible; the World Health Organization (WHO) now believes that over 1 million children could be saved if all babies were exclusively breast-fed the first six months. I hope that all hospitals in our country and our region will follow the lead of two of our major public hospitals in adopting UNICEF's "Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative" by rooming a mother with her newborn child, promoting breast feeding and discouraging breast milk substitutes. In addition to breast feeding my children, I also made sure that they regularly received their immunization shots and it is a source of pride for me and for the country that Jordan's child immunization rates against polio and measles are comparable to that of developed nations. Physical affection during the early years for a child, which comprise one of the most critical stages in his / her development, is very important. I was struck by a study, which found that children who are constantly hugged by their parents grow taller than children whose parents did not demonstrate their affection physically. In addition to child health, educating children and making them aware of and active in global issues is vital. I have encouraged our children to become involved in environmental programs from a very early age and am delighted that they accompany me on my tree planting campaigns and are becoming quite active in pollution and garbage control. School curricula should emphasize environmental issues and encourage their students to join community service programs. |
