Amman- 11 June, 2014
On Wednesday, 11th of June 2014, the GJU launched the Tempus project entitled “Curriculum and Skill Development in Vision Rehabilitation”.
In the next two years, a consortium of universities and non-governmental organizations in Europe and the Middle East will work together to improve the quality and quantity of the services for persons with visual impairment in Jordan and Palestine.
Prof. Manar Fayyad , the GJU Vice President, welcomed all the participants, and stressed that GJU strives to support all events and projects that are related to the Vision Training Center. She also said that GJU is very proud to have a successful center that serves people with visual disabilities.
The participants were from the partner countries, namely Hungary (Eötvös Loránd U.), The Netherlands (Radboud U. Nijmegen and Royal Dutch Visio), the UK (Aston U. and Focus Birmingham) , and Palestine (An-Najah National U., Bethlehem U. and Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation) as well as Jordan (U. of Jordan and the GJU).
The Opening Seminar was divided into two parts, the first one held at the GJU campus in Almushaqar, aimed at informing the participants on the services existing in the partner countries. As expected, the presentations revealed huge differences in the type and quality of services available for persons with visual impairment in Europe and the Middle East.
The second part of the seminar was held in the next day at the Vision Training Center in Jubeiha. The participants discussed specific issues related to the project, involving both the trainers and the trainees representing various professions: ophthalmologists, optometrists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists and rehabilitation workers.
Hopefully between now and November 2016, the project will produce better curricula for optometrists and occupational therapists, and enable the clinical instructors to provide better services to the community.