The agreement will see the Programme implemented in all Youth Centres operated by the Ministry of Youth.
9 May 2018 – Amman/Jordan: Jordan’s Ministry of Youth (MoY), Generations For Peace, and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have today announced the expansion of Generations For Peace’s Maharati Programme (formerly, Social Cohesion Programme), from 40 to 188 youth centres across the Kingdom. The news was shared with an array of media outlets and news entities at an event held this afternoon at Na’our Youth Centre for Boys in Amman, which hosted a broad audience of programme volunteers and participants, as well as key stakeholders such as Jordan’s Secretary General and its Minister of Youth.
Under the expanded programme, Generation For Peace will work together with the MoY, providing additional technical expertise with special emphases on training, mentoring, and curriculum content, as well as in monitoring and evaluation. Using innovative sport-based activities to develop life skills and foster social cohesion, the Maharati Programme (“My Skills” Programme) will now directly impact 45,000 youth and adolescents, both male and female, between the ages of 10 and 24. The programme seeks to promote lasting positive behaviour-change through a sustained series of activities spread over the course of the programme, which will run through December 2018. In addition to those directly impacted, the programme’s life skills and sport for peace activities are expected to indirectly impact an estimated 150,000 additional youth and adolescents.
Speaking on the agreement, Jordan’s Minister of Youth, H.E. Mr. Bashir Rawashdeh, stated, “We are excited to see and play a role in the expansion of the Maharati Programme. The partnership between UNICEF, Generations For Peace, and the Ministry, as well as the resulting programme made possible by the collaboration, truly scales the effects of social cohesion, life skills, and peace building among youth to a nationwide level, benefitting young people at all youth community centres across the Kingdom.”
“Vulnerable young people should be provided with pathways and opportunities to help them unleash their untapped potentials. We are very proud to be part of this initiative and the partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Generations for Peace, thanks to the support the German government,” said Robert Jenkins, UNICEF Jordan Representative.
Lauding the programme’s expansion, Generations For Peace President Dr. Mohanned Arabiat, remarked, “The rate at which this programme continues to scale is astounding. Increasing from 16 to 40 locations last year, and now to nearly 200 in 2018 – these numbers reflect not just communities, but the thousands of youth and adolescents by which they are comprised, and on whom the activities implemented by the Maharati Programme will have a tremendous impact. With the support of JOC, Samsung, Manaseer Group, and Orange, we are proud to have built exceptional partnerships with both UNICEF and the Ministry of Youth over the past years, and are honoured to leverage our expertise in peace building, social cohesion, and sport-based and life skills activities to help advance this programme and its ever further-reaching effects.”
