During a visit to Rweished on Thursday to follow up on initiatives directed in 2000, His Majesty King Abdullah toured the women's society and met with local elders to assess the community's needs.



At the Rweished Women's Society for Social Development, the King visited the organization's kindergarten, where schoolchildren are now able to learn the alphabet and build their vocabulary with interactive software geared towards their age level. The women's centre is equipped with eight new computers, in addition to other IT equipment, to serve the community, in its knowledge station as well as in the classrooms.


In 2000, the King visited Rweished and gave instructions for the implementation of several projects in the area, including the rehabilitation of the women's society.


The King met with Sharifa Zein Bint Nasser, honorary president of the society, who said the organization is working on multiple levels to meet the demands of area residents.


Included in the society's goals are combating illiteracy, providing school facilities, holding training courses and hosting free medical days.


While at the centre, His Majesty also issued a directive to the Ministry of Education to support the role of the knowledge station.


In Rweished, King Abdullah also met with elders, giving them a platform to voice problems and concerns within the community.


A government study of poverty pockets determined the level of poverty in Rweished to be 73.3 per cent.


The King, who listened to the citizens' demands, assured them that further projects would improve conditions.


He also called for the formation of a committee to communicate between the Royal Court, the government and the area's residents to determine community needs.


The King called on the concerned authorities to meet residents' demands for services and education.


Also on Thursday, King Abdullah was briefed on water projects by the Hashemite Fund for Badia Development while visiting Hadalat Dam, the result of a water harvest project completed at the end of 2005 by the fund.


The rainwater reservoir has a capacity of 40 million cubic metres (mcm) and currently holds 19mcm.

The Jordan Times