Queen Rania Chairs Royal Health Awareness Society Board of Trustees Meeting

(Office of Her Majesty – Press Department – Ajloun) - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah chaired the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS)’s annual Board of Trustees Meeting, on Monday, during a visit to the Ballas Secondary School for Girls in Ajloun Governorate.

Her Majesty and attending board members overviewed the progress of the society’s programs, including Nestlé’s Ajyal Salima program and the Healthy Kitchen Project, that are aimed at raising health awareness in schools across Jordan.

The Director of the society, Ms. Hanin Odeh, and the Ballas Secondary School for Girls Principal, Ms. Hanan Ayoub, welcomed Her Majesty to the school, where she joined other board members for the meeting.

During the meeting, Ms. Odeh reflected on the Royal Health Society’s achievements over the past year, which were made possible through partnerships with the Ministries of Health and Education, the private sector, and other international organizations.

Her Majesty emphasized the importance of encouraging positive health practices and stressed the need to focus on maintaining the cleanliness of public areas and parks.

She said that this is only achievable through local campaigns aimed at raising the public’s awareness and setting foundations to limit adverse behaviors like littering.

Ms. Odeh also expanded on the society’s priorities and future strategic plans for the upcoming year, highlighting their emphasis on developing existing programs and assessing their impact and scale in reaching a larger audience of beneficiaries.

Her Majesty then headed to the school’s first floor library where she observed fourth and fifth graders from different schools across Ajloun partake in hands-on activities from Nestlé’s Ajyal Salima program.  

The Queen also met with a few school teachers before heading to the Ballas Charitable Society across the street to take a look at some of the Healthy Kitchen Project’s operations there.

At the society, Queen Rania was received by its President, Mr. Mohammad Ananbeh, who introduced Her Majesty to the local women working on producing healthy meals for schools in the area.

The women described how beneficial the Healthy Kitchen Project has been in providing healthy meals to local school children, and expressed how integral the project has been in generating employment opportunities for local women wishing to support their families.

The Royal Health Awareness Society is a Queen Rania initiative established in 2005 for the purpose of promoting health awareness in Jordan and empowering Jordanians to adopt healthy lifestyle options. The society implements programs that are aligned with national health priorities and are designed to respond to local community needs.

The Nestle Ajyal Salima program and the Healthy Kitchen Project are two of the society’s initiatives targeting school children, youth, and the wider Jordanian community.

The Ajyal Salima program was first launched in Lebanon in collaboration with the American University of Beirut’s School of Agriculture and Nutritional Sciences in October of 2010 with the objective of spreading nutrition awareness, healthy eating habits, and an active lifestyle among school students.

In Jordan, the program was launched through the Royal Health Awareness Society in 2015, and has thus far been implemented in 36 schools across Amman, Irbid, Madaba, Ajloun, Zarqa, and Balqa governorates, targeting over 6,000 students and 115 teachers in total.

The Healthy Kitchen Project was launched by the Royal Health Awareness Society in 2015 in partnership with the Ministries of Education and Health and the World Food Program. The project aims to provide healthy food alternatives to students by linking schools to productive kitchens within community based organizations.

The project has already generated one-hundred job opportunities for local women across Jordan. As part of the project, these women have received training on operations and meal production standards, and have been taught basic financial literacy skills as well.

The Ballas Secondary School for Girls was established in 2009 and currently has over 350 students between the fifth and twelfth grade.