Nubader Program supports adolescent girls for the first time in Rusaifah
In Jordan, there are many gender-specific barriers that restrict the freedom of girls. These include norms around early marriage impeding girls from pursuing education, constraints on girls’ movement for enjoying social interaction with their peers, and limited options to self-development and social activities they can be enrolled in. Many parents are especially cautious about sending their adolescent daughters to participate in social activities due to fear from facing harassments as they walk down the streets. These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID‑19 pandemic lockdown and restrictions on movement.
According to a recent study released by Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) on adolescent experiences following COVID‑19 in Jordan, 70% of girls reported an increase in gender-based constraints on their behavior post COVID‑19 government lockdown arrangements.
Rimas Najjar, a 14-year-old participant in the Nubader program in Rusaifah mentions, “there is something annoying from the boys in our residential area, the moment we (adolescent girls) start walking in the street they start bullying us, that is why our parents are worried about us to walk alone and want us to stay at home.”
Mercy Corps “Nubader'' program, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Aid, is supporting adolescent girls in Rusaifah for the first time by equipping them with various skills and tools that stimulate their emotional, cognitive, and social development. Through discussions and activities, teenage girls are learning to recognize their strengths, interests, and values; they are building healthy relationships with their peers and finding new friendships. Additionally, they learn to label, manage, and regulate difficult emotions such as anger and sadness, and they learn to accept the varying opinions of others.
When asked about the skills she learned in the Nubader program, 14-year-old participant Zeinab says “I stopped arguing a lot, I learned to respect people around me in a better way. For example, before participating in this program I didn’t respect those who did not respect me. Now, regardless if a person respects me or not I would still respect him or her especially if he or she is older than me. This is a positive change in my life that I felt people started to love me more.”
The Nubader program also provides self-expression activities that focus on diverse arts aspects including photography, film making, digital media, white board motion graphics, content writing, theater plays, and physical education. These activities are used as a means to help adolescent girls discover their ultimate talents and to follow a purposeful path in life. By the end of these sessions, the girl groups produced their own project that demonstrates meaningful community engagement and leadership as a means for establishing adolescents’ sense of personal value, and improving their quality of life.
In this regard 14-year-old Rimas mentions, “we learned drawing and painting, we painted Mandela’s portrait, something I taught to little children around me to help them calm down when they are angry; I gave children in my family Mandela’s portraits to paint instead of staying on the mobile phones.”
The Self-Expression workshop also introduces young people to potential job paths, and improves their interpersonal skills and self-awareness. In Rusaifa, Mercy Corps Nubader took girl participants to Luminus Technical University College to introduce adolescent girls to various job occupations. In this regard Zeinab mentions, “I liked the career exposure, when we visited places for different occupations and they started briefing us and giving instructions on the different career paths we can pursue. I liked more than one career path that I didn’t know about before such as car mechanics which I didn’t know was that enjoyable, I loved this occupation.”
At the final stages of the Nubader program, adolescent girls participate in community service activities that address issues in their community, which bolster their role as a contributing member of their community. Rimas talks about her participation in the community service activity, “We went to an orphanage house for three consecutive days, we had so much fun, there we met new girls that are younger than us and we participated in activities with them. We painted the place (one of the sitting rooms) and cleaned the orphans’ playground.”
Mercy Corps is implementing its pioneering “Nubader” program Supporting Resilient Youth and Communities in Jordan (SRYCJ) project in Rusaifeh, Irbid and Madaba to mitigate key drivers of social instability, adolescent isolation and violent conflict, and engaging at-risk female and male youth in activities that strengthen their sense of identity, belonging and connections to their families and communities.