Towards a Safe and Clean School Environment

Believing in their right to study in a clean and safe school environment which is one of the rights clearly stated in the Declaration of Human Rights and understanding their responsibility to protect their school, its facilities, and furniture from vandalism and damage, grade 9 students of Al Nuzha Girls UNRWA School started their campaign " Towards a Safe and Clean Environment" with the help of their teacher Nadia Thalji and the supervision of Mr. Khalil Radwan.

The campaign started with forming the School Environment Club that worked in cooperation with the North Amman Area Education Office on raising the funds needed for carrying out the project. The Club's activities included a cleanliness awareness campaign within the school through brochures and posters. The cleanliness campaign was expanded to include other UNRWA schools and the local community. The students approached M.P Mr. Khalil Atiyyeh who helped them through Amman Municipality to paint the fences of the school and to provide the school with trash containers and trees for the school garden.

 

A Sun and Rain Shelter  for a School

The 1500 girls of Princess Taghreed School, a public school in the suburbs of Amman had been suffering the damaging sun rays of the hot summer days and the harmful pours of the rainy season until Grade 8 students of the school year 2007/2008 decided to solve the problem. Through their work on "Project Citizen" Grade 8 found out that the ideal solution was to install a sun and rain shelter that would shield the playground from the harmful weather conditions while the girls could still enjoy the great outdoors. With the help of their teacher Iman Abu Odeh and the school principle Intissar Al Qhewee, the students managed to collect the 13000 JD cost of material and labour from the civil society and the private sector. The girls worked really hard in helping create this stylish covered play area, the school students are being kept safe and healthy and everyone has been very happy with the results.

University Clinic Meets Project Citizen

Civic Education is concerned with disseminating the spirit of responsible and attentive citizenship so that civic qualities may become part of the behavioral ethos of citizens, citizens who are committed to their country and who take the initiative in building and developing it. Project Citizen  in the Community Service Office has set a new model for good citizens by their initiative to deal with the problems related to the University Clinics. This came about by studying the problem, gaining the support of University students, and convincing the University officials to address the problem.

Subsequently, the University responded to the matters raised by students and bought a new ambulance. It also very effectively modernized the Dentistry Clinic. The one remaining issue pertaining to the clinic is a small one: students must wait for a long time for attention in the clinic. We hope that this problem will be resolved.

Better Parking at JU thanks to Project Citizen

One of the most important aims of Project Citizen is to help students acquire an accurate scientific basis and criteria to deal with the problems surrounding them in their local community.

Because the participants were aware of, and were able to, implement the applied criteria; they then needed to select a problem for their research and apply the necessary solutions to it. The students participating in Project Citizen were able to achieve a great success by identifying the problem of vehicle parking at the university of Jordan and consequently had the opportunity to solve it.

The thirty-two participants elected the problem of parking spaces on the University campus, as this was one of the most serious problems faced by them on a daily basis. The irresponsible habits of some of the student bodies in the way they parked their cars created a consistent nuisance. The participants began to study the problem and gathered data about it in order to find the root cause of the problem. They then were able to draw up an action plan to convince their fellow students to adopt the solutions they had chosen. They presented to these students, the criteria and instructions, which clarified the actual aim of parking places, and they further explored the possibility of University security officials monitoring the parking spaces.

After the students had completed their portfolio and drawn up their action plan for implementing the solution they had prepared, they achieved a positive success. The University exhibited the basis  and instructions of the use of car parking facilities. Furthermore, it established a security checkpoint at the entrance of the car park to record any violations.

We Care, We Show We Care

One of the problems, which the Civic Education students  dealt with and found practical solutions to, was the problem facing Special Needs Students.

This was the most pressing problem according to the participants in the session because of the many difficulties faced by this group of students on the University Campus. For example, there is a lack of concrete walkways, which students facing motor challenges require in some parts of the University such as the Scientific Colleges. In addition, visually challenged students faced the problem of not having guides to help them nor Braille signs as facilities of the university.

 After the participants in the session had gathered sufficient data about the problem in its different dimensions and had finished the theoretical study, they drew up an action plan and began to implement it. In this way, the theoretical study and the solutions they suggested became a real, practical, and tangible reality. They identified the places in need of concrete walkways and went to the Maintenance Department in the University to secure the necessary materials to build them. After the students had secured the necessary equipment and materials, they appointed a voluntary workday for all the University Students to participate in building these concrete walkways. The participants’ motto was “Towards building a secure environment for special needs students”. The most positive outcome was that the University adopted this problem and finally worked on solving it in order to provide comfort and access for our special needs students. As for the Visually Challenged students, the University is working on providing student volunteers to function as guides; and the University will provide guideposts using Braille for these students. A most positive outcome from the efforts of Project Citizen.