Queen Rania Honors Schools Accredited by the RHAS Healthy Schools Program

(Office of Her Majesty- Press Department- Amman) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah honored today the schools that were accredited by the Royal Health Awareness Society’s (RHAS) Healthy Schools Program.

Organized in partnership with the Ministries of Health and Education, the Healthy Schools Accreditation Program aims to promote healthy practices in schools and their surrounding communities to positively affect students’ physical and social growing as well as their academic performance.

At the ceremony, Queen Rania handed out 43 certificates of accreditation to the winning schools of which 4 were gold accreditation certificates, 17 silver, and 22 bronze.

Her Majesty, along with other attendees which included H.E. Mohammad Thneibat, Minister of Education, H.E. DaifAllah Al Lozi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, and Dr. Rami Farraj, Chairman of the Board of Directors of RHAS, watched a short video about the program’s achievements so far.

Speaking at the ceremony, RHAS’s Director Ms. Enaam Barishi said that RHAS has strived over the past few years to improve the health standards in schools in Jordan as it strongly believes in every child’s right to get an education in a healthy and safe environment.

On the sidelines of the event, Queen Rania checked on an exhibition held by participating schools to showcase the different health related initiatives they successfully implemented with the help of students and parents. During her tour at the exhibition which was divided into three sections representing sports, nutrition, and health, Queen Rania listened to principals and teachers explain how these different initiatives helped improve their schools’ environment.

The Healthy Schools Program is a national program that introduces standards for healthy school environments, thereby developing healthy lifestyles and eating habits among children and adolescents to prepare them for healthy adulthood. These standards were evaluated and approved by the World Health Organization in June 2007 and include: leadership and management, school environment and health safety, health awareness, effectiveness of the workers and teachers in school, community participation, the health services provided to students, counseling services and psychological health, sports, and nutrition.