Family Counseling Awareness Workshops in Qatranah
09-10-2013
The National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) carried out three awareness workshops on the importance of family counseling targeting the local community in Qatranah. The workshops aimed at introducing the importance of family counseling in protecting the family and society from family and social problems in addition to providing information and family counseling skills.
The (NCFA) Acting Secretary-General Mohammad Miqdady indicated the importance of raising the awareness of the community on family counseling as it can be a means of addressing family problems resulting from various kinds of pressure affecting it. "Targeting the local community is a leading step in implementing awareness programs ", Miqdady said, pointing out the lack of such programs in Qatranah which, if implemented, can actually reduce some family problems such as divorce, bad choice of spouse, marital incompatibility, family violence and many others.
One of the key recommendation of the workshop was to establish a family counseling center in Qatranah that can help family members understand and workout their problems, be they social, psychological or legal, in a scientific manner based on understanding so as to be able to restore stability of the family and consolidate its pillars.
It is worth noting that the Council had implemented a number of workshops in 2010 targeting staff involved in family counseling. Nearly 2200 trainees underwent training representing counselors from the Ministry of Education, social workers and supervisors from the Ministry of Social Development and representatives from NGOs working in this field. The trainees were instructed on the use of the reference book on family counseling and the training manual produced by the Council containing a number of issues pertaining to this field.
On a different note, the Council cooperated with a number of associations and institutions in an effort to provide support and assistance to family members through family counseling services in some locations in Jordan. A number of family counseling centers were established in: al-Raya Park in Amman, in Irbid in collaboration with Family and Childhood Protection Society, in Karak with the Hashemite Fund, in Aqaba in collaboration with Jordan River Foundation and finally in Ma'an with Alanwar Charity for Women Association. The staff working in these centers were trained on various family counseling issues contained in the reference book and manual. The Council plans to support these centers in future so that their services would cover more areas in Jordan.
