Ammon News - AMMAN (Petra)-To support Jordanian youth volunteers, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah met on Monday with members of the Voluntary Initiatives Network Society participating in workshop sessions that aim to organize volunteers' efforts in Jordan.

Queen Rania attended part of a workshop session that divided volunteers into five different categories based on the fields they serve in: education and development, target groups, knowledge building and awareness, environment and tourism, and maintenance.

Her Majesty highlighted the need to exchange ideas and experiences between initiatives working in different fields and governorates and find creative ways to link them together and help them overcome the challenges they face.

The workshop session gathered about 140 volunteers representing several initiatives from the north, center and south of Jordan to discuss the challenges they face, how they can expand their reach and come out with new strategies that can help them unify their efforts to better serve people in Jordan. A brief about the network, its goals, the initiatives it includes as well as the areas and fields it covers was given by Mohammad Jaber, President of Voluntary Initiatives Network; Tareq Al Kharabsheh, Vice President of Voluntary Initiatives Network; and Lana Ramahi, Director of Voluntary Initiatives Network.

Volunteers attending today are also taking part in a competition organized by the Voluntary Initiatives Network that aim to encourage the culture of volunteerism and good citizenship across the kingdom. Today 15 initiatives, out of 48 semi- finalists that applied, will be announced as qualified to go through to the next level of the competition. Five initiatives will be announced as winners during a ceremony to be held on the 22nd of June and will be given financial support to help them improve their work.

Earlier in the day, Queen Rania was briefed by three volunteers on the outcomes of a previous session the volunteers attended. Participants were divided into groups according to their geographical areas where they identified available resources for each initiative so they can provide other initiatives that work in the same area with the resources they lack. Established in 2012 under the Ministry of Social Development, the Voluntary Initiatives Network is coalition of voluntary Jordanian initiatives across the kingdom with a focus to enhance the culture of volunteerism and encourage positive change within Jordanian society. It aims at implementing strategies for the voluntary initiatives with the goal of unifying efforts to best enhance voluntary work.

To date, the number of initiatives within the network has reached 173.