American aid agency to expand outreach in Kingdom

By Taylor Luck

AMMAN - After years of working under the radar, an American aid agency is about to make its presence felt in Jordan.

The non-political, non-religious and nonprofit American Near East Refugee Agency (ANERA) has been operating in the West Bank and Gaza for over four decades.

Since opening an office in the Kingdom in 2004, the agency has worked to assist local charity societies in the fields of youth, education, healthcare and social development.

According to ANERA President Bill Corcoran, come 2011, that is all about to change.

“Jordan is going to be a target for more projects, more of our individual money and efforts,” he said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times.

Formed in 1968 as an American response to the humanitarian impact of the 1967 war, the organization has worked to reach out to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and refugee camps as well as communities across the Levant.

Among its activities in Jordan, ANERA has provided financial support for the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf (HLD) to carry out its programs.

As part of a new drive to increase the scope of its programs in Jordan, ANERA is now shifting its focus to capacity building to empower the HLD to reach out to refugee camps and elsewhere through mobile clinics.

The agency and the HLD, in cooperation with the Ladies of Sukhneh Society, have started in the Sukhneh camp to take hearing aid measurements and encourage families to allow their children to undergo hearing tests, according to ANERA.

In the field of education, ANERA has worked in cooperation with UNESCO to offer after-school tutoring for underprivileged Jordanian and Iraqi students in Al Qasr, Hashemi Shamali and Zarqa since 2008.

When the Kingdom opened the doors of the country’s schools to Iraqi students in 2007, ANERA saw a need to foster a greater sense of community among students of different backgrounds.

“The question was, how do you help bring these students together?” Corcoran said. The answer: after-school tutoring.

Over the last two years, ANERA and UNESCO have helped Iraqi students whose schooling was interrupted, to integrate in the Kingdom’s educational system while supporting low-income Jordanian students.

In health, the organization is working with the Jordan Breast Cancer Program (JBCP) to reach out to Wihdat residents and raise awareness on the importance of early detection.

In its first phase, ANERA's outreach program will educate some 7,300 women and help 500 others undergo free-of-charge mammograms at Al Hilal Hospital in east Amman, followed by some 250 recall mammograms and biopsy services for those in need.

The agency will work to expand the JBCP’s efforts to other densely populated neighborhoods, all as part of its focus on working with existing community based organizations to help them extend their reach and improve services.

“ANERA is not interested in duplicating what people are doing… We are working with Jordanian organizations to spread the good they do in places they haven’t reached,” Corcoran noted.

Another pillar of the agency’s work is facilitating the donation of in-kind assistance, delivering millions of dollars worth of supplies provided to ANERA by major US corporations to societies, schools and homes in the region.

In Jordan, recent efforts include the donation of 200 wheelchairs for Al Hussein Society.

ANERA recently formed a committee to determine ways to best boost its outreach in Jordan and develop strategies to identify and address the Kingdom’s development priorities.

Working on many fronts

While ANERA is working with public and private stakeholders in the Kingdom to assist its expansion in Jordan, it faces difficulties in its other fields of operation, according to Corcoran.

ANERA has had to take a more creative approach in the Gaza Strip, where strict limits imposed by the Israeli blockade prevent even the most basic supplies from entering the coastal enclave.

Although it remains one of the few organizations allowed to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, the agency must avoid projects requiring cement and other materials banned from entry, he said.

ANERA substitutes PVC for metal pipes, and even goes door-to-door to ask for people’s toilets, doors and other salvageable items to re-use in conflict-damaged schools.

As they can’t import water tanks, ANERA has worked to teach Gazans how to harvest rainwater, and in order to get around the ban on fertilizers, the agency introduced programs to encourage backyard farming to ensure sustainable food sources in the coastal enclave.

Despite the obstacles, ANERA and its local partners have managed to repair 43 preschools, while putting Gazans to work.

In addition to rebuilding schools for Gaza’s children, ANERA ensures meals for 20,000 preschoolers each day by providing milk and biscuits. The fortified milk and biscuits are prepared with specific nutrients in the West Bank, providing nutrition for Gaza’s children while help stimulating the economy in the West Bank, he said.

ANERA says it also faces new obstacles in East Jerusalem, where demographic changes and legal loopholes continue to push Palestinians out of their homes, creating an increasing sense of immediacy in their work.

“Our own staff in East Jerusalem are losing their property; at the end of the day the impact becomes a bit more personal,” he noted.

In Lebanon, where the agency has operated for over 20 years, it recently worked in the Naher Al Bared camp to rebuild homes and a healthcare center destroyed in fighting in 2007, while simultaneously working to develop the country’s eco-tourism industry by providing consultation on ways to transform old homes to chalets.

According to Corcoran, although the projects are varied and challenges diverse, the agency’s message remains the same.

“ANERA sends a message that although American politics may seem frustrating, deep down American people are still generous and want to improve their lives and heal their pain,” he said.

Other organizations have taken notice: the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, and ARAMCO are among donors in the region that have been added to a growing list that includes the UN, USAID and a host of American and international corporations.

With the support, the agency was able to provide $48.5 million worth of programs in 2009 in its four fields of operation, and the same feat in 2010, benefiting more than one million Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians.

As it enters 2011, ANERA will continue to steer away from advocacy as it looks to spread goodwill around the Kingdom and elsewhere in the region, Corcoran said.

“People in the Middle East are the same as in the US, the human struggles are the same, the conditions are the same, the aspirations are the same. Our broad-based support shows that the American people can be generous and want to help local people to find solutions.”

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33039.