JORDAN – On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, Fr. Wissam Mansour, General Director of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Jordan, signed 12 cooperation agreements in education with Caritas Jordan’s Director Mr. Wael Suleiman, aimed at benefiting Syrian refugee students.
The agreements, which were signed at Our Lady of Peace Center with the blessing of Bishop William Shomali, will help serve 3000-4000 Syrian refugees that attend 12 Latin Patriarchate Schools in 8 governorates in Jordan; Amman, Zarqa, Madaba, Karak, Ajloun, Mafraq, Irbid and Balqa.
The partnership, which is funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) and the German Government through Caritas’s German branch, will support the students learning process and educational environment at the schools. Buses in the above-mentioned governorates will transport the refugees from camps to the schools, where afternoon classes are held for 3-4 hours. In April last year, and thanks to the donations of the parishioners of Mafraq, the Montreal Lieutenancy of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher and the l’Œuvre d’Orient, a bus was purchased for the parish of St. Joseph, contributing to the reduction of the cost of renting buses for the same purpose.
These agreements are just one of many that Caritas Jordan works to realize to help provide some basic rights to impoverished Syrian and Iraqi refugees escaping wars and oppression. Just last October, France signed two agreements with Caritas Jordan and Habibi Valtiberina Association[1] that aim to serve Iraqi refugees. While Caritas Jordan will make it possible for 153 Iraqi students to enroll in four Catholic Schools in Jordan for the 2019- 2020 academic year, Habib Valtiberina Association will hold afternoon classes for children in the Latin Patriarchate school in Northern Hashimi and offer vocational training in sewing for women.
