Queen Rania's Closet ستايل الملكة رانيا

 Her Majesty Queen Rania paid a visit to the Eureka Tech Academy, on Wednesday May17th, during which she emphasized the importance of investing in hands-on learning and reassessing the current methods used in teaching the sciences.

She was received by the Founder, Ms. Afnan Ali, who then moderated a meeting between Her Majesty, and the Academy’s team members, beneficiaries, and parents of enrolled students.

During the meeting, Ms. Ali gave a brief overview of the Academy and shared stories of the positive impact it has had on its students. Ms. Ali also explained to Her Majesty the process through which Eureka’s curriculum and study materials were developed, and elaborated on the Academy’s main programs and its vision for the future.

Her Majesty then discussed the contributions of the Academy to discovering the talents of public and private school children, and making them more involved in producing technology rather than merely consuming it. She also listened to feedback from attending parents and browsed the students’ projects before proceeding on a tour of some of the classes that were in session.

The Queen first dropped in on a Pneumatics class where six to ten year-olds from the Little Innovators program were learning about the application of gas and pressurized air to engineering.

Her Majesty also stopped by the Electronics and Internet of Things (IOT) class, targeted at the Academy’s older students from the Bright Innovators program, where a group of eleven to sixteen year-olds were learning how to build electronic circuits and program micro-controllers.

Happy to have visited @Eureka_Academy and met with its teachers and students who are keen on learning more about engineering and technology! pic.twitter.com/XwPVyJgAJN

— Rania Al Abdullah (@QueenRania) May 17, 2017

The Eureka Tech Academy is an organization specialized in the education of innovation and engineering. Eureka is considered a local and regional pioneer in the development of children’s capabilities in the fields of technology and engineering.

On Monday May 16th Her Majesty visited the Ballas Secondary School for Girls in Ajloun Governorate, where she chaired the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS)’s annual Board of Trustees Meeting.
The Ballas Secondary School for Girls was established in 2009 and currently has over 350 students between the fifth and twelfth grade.
Her Majesty and attending board members overviewed the progress of the society’s programs, including Nestlé’s Ajyal Salima program and the Healthy Kitchen Project, that are aimed at raising health awareness in schools across Jordan.

The Director of the society, Ms. Hanin Odeh, and the Ballas Secondary School for Girls Principal, Ms. Hanan Ayoub, welcomed Her Majesty to the school, where she joined other board members for the meeting.

فريق عمل رائع يهتم بصحة أطفالنا. شكرا لأهالي منطقة عجلون وللمدرسين والطلبة وللجمعية الملكية للتوعية الصحية ومبادرة أجيال سليمة وجميع من يعمل في بلدنا الحبيب من أجل نشر العادات الصحية السليمة بين طلابنا #أطفال #صحة #الأردن #حب_الأردن A great team that cares about our children’s health and well-being! I am very grateful to the teachers, students, and parents I met in Ajloun today, as well as to the @RHASJO and the Ajyal Salima program, for their dedication to spreading healthy lifestyle habits among our students #Children #Health #Jordan #LoveJO

A post shared by Queen Rania Al Abdullah (@queenrania) on May 15, 2017 at 6:33am PDT

During the meeting, Ms. Odeh reflected on the Royal Health Society’s achievements over the past year, which were made possible through partnerships with the Ministries of Health and Education, the private sector, and other international organizations.

Ajloun’s weather was wonderful today! I was happy to visit Ballas village for a look at the quality nutrition programs implemented there pic.twitter.com/LFiGOnr9vQ

— Rania Al Abdullah (@QueenRania) May 15, 2017

Her Majesty emphasized the importance of encouraging positive health practices and stressed the need to focus on maintaining the cleanliness of public areas and parks. She said that this is only achievable through local campaigns aimed at raising the public’s awareness and setting foundations to limit adverse behaviors like littering.

Ms. Odeh also expanded on the society’s priorities and future strategic plans for the upcoming year, highlighting their emphasis on developing existing programs and assessing their impact and scale in reaching a larger audience of beneficiaries.

Her Majesty then headed to the school’s first floor library where she observed fourth and fifth graders from different schools across Ajloun partake in hands-on activities from Nestlé’s Ajyal Salima program.

The Queen also met with a few school teachers before heading to the Ballas Charitable Society across the street to take a look at some of the Healthy Kitchen Project’s operations there.

At the society, Queen Rania was received by its President, Mr. Mohammad Ananbeh, who introduced Her Majesty to the local women working on producing healthy meals for schools in the area.

The women described how beneficial the Healthy Kitchen Project has been in providing healthy meals to local school children, and expressed how integral the project has been in generating employment opportunities for local women wishing to support their families.

The Royal Health Awareness Society is a Queen Rania's initiative established in 2005 for the purpose of promoting health awareness in Jordan and empowering Jordanians to adopt healthy lifestyle options. The society implements programs that are aligned with national health priorities and are designed to respond to local community needs.


The Ajyal Salima program was first launched in Lebanon in collaboration with the American University of Beirut’s School of Agriculture and Nutritional Sciences in October of 2010 with the objective of spreading nutrition awareness, healthy eating habits, and an active lifestyle among school students.

In Jordan, the program was launched through the Royal Health Awareness Society in 2015, and has thus far been implemented in 36 schools across Amman, Irbid, Madaba, Ajloun, Zarqa, and Balqa governorates, targeting over 6,000 students and 115 teachers in total.

The Healthy Kitchen Project was launched by the Royal Health Awareness Society in 2015 in partnership with the Ministries of Education and Health and the World Food Program. The project aims to provide healthy food alternatives to students by linking schools to productive kitchens within community based organizations.

The project has already generated one-hundred job opportunities for local women across Jordan. As part of the project, these women have received training on operations and meal production standards, and have been taught basic financial literacy skills as well.

The Queen Rania Foundation and Google.org on Wednesday May 10th announced they have joined forces to create an online learning platform for Arabic open educational resources (OERs) targeting K-12 students and their educators across the Middle East and North Africa region.

The initiative comes at a crucial time to help make sure millions of children across the region have access to quality education. Today, an estimated 13 million MENA children, equivalent to 40% of the school age population, are missing out on an education because of conflict and displacement. The refugee crisis has also strained existing education systems in host countries, like Jordan and Lebanon that have taken in large numbers of refugee students, compromising the quality of education offered to both local and refugee children.

Excited that @Googleorg is providing a generous grant to the @QRFoundation to create an Arabic online K-12 learning platform https://t.co/hrdAISrXTr

— Rania Al Abdullah (@QueenRania) May 10, 2017

The three million USD grant from Google.org, which was announced during a one-on-one discussion earlier this week between Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at Google Zeitgeist in the UK, reflects their shared belief that technology, when leveraged carefully and intentionally, can play a crucial role in addressing educational challenges around the world.

@Googleorg Announces Grant to the @QRFoundation towards the Creation of a K-12 Arab Online Learning Platform https://t.co/n7X9goiakV

— QueenRaniaFoundation (@QRFoundation) May 10, 2017

Speaking to the goals of the work, Queen Rania said, “I am confident that, with the support of Google.org, we can bring about more equitable access to high-quality education, wherever students live, and break down the learning barriers facing so many children in the Arab world.”