Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Under the patronage of His Excellency, Mr. Khalid Al Karaki, Minister of Education in Jordan, the USAID-funded Jordan Health Communication Partnership / Johns Hopkins University / Center for Communication Programs in collaboration with FINE Hygienic Paper Company and FINE Sancella Hygiene Jordan (FINE SCA) recently announced the winners of the first phase of its “Talking Frankly” initiative.

“Talking Frankly” has been launched earlier this year in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education with the objective of raising awareness of adolescent health and hygiene issues.

On behalf of His Excellency, Dr. Saleh Al Khalaileh, said: “Talking Frankly has been launched in the 2009/2010 scholar semester in 14 boys’ schools and 10 girls’ schools, where educational booklets were especially produced and distributed to all participating students in addition to the establishment of health rooms in ten schools”.

On this occasion, Bassam Salah, Jordan Country Manager at FINE Hygienic Paper Company said: “Since its launch, the initiative focused on educating youth in an interactive approach. The competition came to complement the efforts and encourage students to adopt Hygienic behaviors at their school leading to a Hygienic lifestyle with their families. The submitted projects are impressive and reflect excellent understanding of the initiative’s objectives”.

Rula Dajani, Deputy Chief of Party at the Jordan Health Communication Partnership stressed on the importance of public private partnerships in implementing health related initiatives and commended the team spirit between all partners. “We look forward to implementing more health projects and initiatives that would surely benefit many people in our beloved country”. Mrs. Dajani added.

Wisam Qarqash, Senior Education and Health Communication Specialist at the Jordan Health Communication Partnership, said: “Participants have shown great commitment to the initiative; they have designed and implemented several activities related to personal health and hygiene. Today, we award the most distinguished projects after thorough evaluation conducted by a joint committee with members from MOH, MOE, JHCP and FINE”.

It is worth mentioning that the second phase of the initiative is scheduled to start in February 2011 targeting 12 boys’ schools and 10 girls’ schools in Amman, Madaba, Zarqa and Irbid.