The National Centre for Culture and Arts (NCCA) of the King Hussein Foundation and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), represented by the Civil Peace Service (CPS) program in Jordan, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) establishing a framework for joint cooperation in the fields of peacebuilding, enhancing psychosocial resilience, and developing youth skills through theatre, arts, and participatory creative methods.
The MoU was signed on behalf of the King Hussein Foundation by Executive Director Hana Matri Shahin, in the presence of NCCA Director Joyce Al-Rai, while it was signed on behalf of GIZ by the coordinator of the Civil Peace Service program in Jordan, Lilli von Stachelberg.
The memorandum paves the way for designing and implementing joint initiatives and activities that are conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive, and inclusive. It focuses on empowering youth with psychosocial and life skills, thereby enhancing their self-confidence, decision-making abilities, capacity to build healthy relationships, and positive engagement with diversity.
The partnership also aims to provide supportive environments for youth in cooperation with parents, teachers, local communities, civil society organizations, and government institutions, with special attention given to youth facing intersecting challenges.
Under the partnership, the NCCA will utilize its expertise in theatre, arts, training, and facilitation, along with its cadre of trainers and facilitators, to contribute to the implementation of programs, enhance their sustainability and local ownership, and support youth to become peer leaders and active volunteers in their communities.
Hana Matri Shahin stated that the partnership embodies the NCCA's belief in the power of arts and theatre to serve as a safe space for expression, dialogue, and trust-building, expressing her aspiration to work with GIZ and the Civil Peace Service program to empower youth with tools that help them deal with diversity consciously and peacefully.
For her part, Lilli von Stachelberg said that the Civil Peace Service program has worked over the past nine years to build theatrical skills among its partner organizations in Jordan, noting that the new partnership with the NCCA represents an addition to the program's network, building upon and extending previous work.
She expressed the program's anticipation for the center's contributions to the Civil Peace Service network and to benefit from its expertise in theatrical techniques, incorporating them into the tools of the program's learning community.
