Queen Rania Visits Balat Al Shuhada’ Elementary School

February 29, 2012

(Office of Her Majesty – Press Department – Amman) - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah paid a visit to Balat Al Shuhada’ Elementary School in Amman today where she checked up on the Royal Health Awareness Society’s Think First program. Think First is an injury prevention program that aims to integrate injury prevention measures in the daily lives of young Jordanians. The Program is designed and implemented by the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS) which was founded and is chaired by Her Majesty.

During the visit Her Majesty met with teachers from the different schools which benefit from the program, and heard from them about the results and the effects the program has on their pupils. After the meeting, The Queen stopped by the school’s computer lab, where volunteers were giving the students a Think First lecture.

Her Majesty also greeted the school’s teachers and paid a visit to a first grade class room, where the young students sang Think First songs.

The Think First Program is currently implemented in schools on a national level, and uses creative child-friendly methods of teaching. The objective of the project is to help students understand why they must learn to think before they act. Using this approach, children will learn to practice necessary safety habits which will teach them how to minimize the risks of sustaining a brain or spinal cord injury.

The program initially began as an extracurricular activity and is now integrated within the science and vocational classes in the school. In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the plan is to introduce “Think First” in all schools across the Kingdom.

The program targets children aged 6-14 in all schools across the kingdom, in addition to teachers and parents.

Think First aims to raise awareness of the simplicity and importance of injury prevention in local communities, by introducing educational activities that are fun and participatory. It also seeks to bring injury prevention into the spotlight of public attention by communicating key injury prevention messages.