The official visit of the President of the Foundation, Ms. Jumana Trad, and the General Secretary, Ms Monica Bohigues, to Jordan and the Palestinian Territories took place during the month of December and was performed with the aim of supporting the Foundation’s work in the field and to open new avenues of collaboration with different institutions, social organizations and local partners in the region.

 

Meetings with the FPSC teams in each of the two countries visited were maintained and field visits were conducted to monitor the progress of the projects that the Foundation is implementing.

 

The visit took place from December 3rd to 13th. 

 

During the first days in Jordan, Ms. Jumana Trad and Ms. Monica Bohigues had the opportunity to explain the work that the FPSC is doing in that country to the UNHCR Senior Programme Officer in Amman Ms Amra, Nuhbegovic, to ECHO Technical Assistant in Health Mr. Paul Critchley, and to Dr. Haidar Rasheed, Chief Project Coordinator UN Women.

 

It had special relevance the scheduled visit on December 4th.to Za’atri refugee camp in the north of Jordan, along with the FPSC emergency team in that country. Za’atri is the second largest refugee camp in the world where more than 70,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in their country live, and more than 50% are children.

 

 

 

In this field, the FPSC operates humanitarian aid financed by the AECID and the Red Crescent, giving priority to the attention of the group of people with disabilities, mostly children, by providing personalized attention and wheelchairs, braces, and other assistive technologies adapted.

 

The President and the General Secretary of the Foundation had the opportunity to visit the Space of the FPSC in the field, a physiotherapy clinic where services are offered to Syrian refugees with disabilities.

 

 

In a previous meeting held on the day of their arrival in Jordan, the Ambassador of Spain in Jordan, who had just visited the FPSC project in Za’atri, encouraged the Foundation to continue their work on the project.

 

During these days meetings were held with counterparts which are local organizations, with whom the FPSC has worked for many years in its development cooperation projects.

 

It should be noted the meetings with the President of JOHUD, Princess Basma, and the Bishop of Amman, Monsignor Maroun Laham.

 

During the course of the meeting with JOHUD, it was commented the importance of continued cooperation between the two organizations once 2014 ended, and with it the Agreement “Improving the management of water resources in agriculture to ensure food security in Palestinian Territories and Jordan” ended too. During the meeting, the results and the progress thereof were analyzed.

 

The second part of the visit took place in the Palestinian Territories. The FPSC board members visited the Foundation partners in the Palestinian Territories in order to support the joint work that they have been doing in the area for more than 25 years.

 

In order to support the work of the Foundation in the field and open new avenues of collaboration with Palestinian counterparts, various agencies and institutions were visited.

 

In this way, they met with the Latin Patriarch, His Beatitude Fuad Twal, with whom the Foundation is currently implementing a project in Gaza funded by the Community of Madrid, and the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

 

 

They also visited the Vice Chancellor of Bethlehem University, Br Peter Brey, and the Dean of the Faculty of Education, D. Rizek Sleibi, who presented the activities of the Agreement of Education funded by the AECID, which is running and will end in late 2014.

 

The PARC’s management team also received the president of the FPSC, and likewise, the work of the Foundation was presented to Fuqaha Ziyad, the Palestinian Water Authority.

 

The director of the Pontifical Mission Palestine, Sami el-Yousef spoke with Jumana Trad after more than two decades of working together.

 

In addition, the President of The Jerusalem Foundation, Mark Sofer, showed the facilities of the Foundation building in Mishkenot Sheananim in the heart of Jerusalem.

 

Among their official visits the President and the General Secretary also visited the General Consul in Jerusalem and the AECID General Coordinator of the Technical Cooperation Office.