Fostering Economic Independence, Inclusion
IOCC has operated in Jordan since 2005, offering humanitarian aid and development assistance to help Jordanians and refugees improve their lives and livelihoods. After the Syria conflict began in 2011, IOCC scaled up activities in both refugee camps and urban centers, where most refugees live. IOCC’s work in Jordan especially prioritizes serving and creating opportunities for people with disabilities.
Meeting Urgent Needs
IOCC works to assist Jordanians and refugees through innovative cash programming in Jordan. Whether it’s distributing prepaid cards in winter to help with seasonal expenses or covering rent so families can stay in their homes and focus on other pressing needs, IOCC’s financial support helps ensure that families can access to basic essentials. IOCC has also rehabilitated rented homes, ensuring that people in need have safe, secure housing.
Expert Support for People with Disabilities & Impairments
IOCC provides health, education, and livelihood services for Jordanians and refugees with impairments and disabilities throughout Jordan, reaching nearly 58,000 people. IOCC has equipped diagnostic clinics in six locations, plus a mobile clinic, to improve these specialized services. IOCC has also supplied assistive devices such as hearing aids, glasses, low-vision devices, wheelchairs, and mobility aids to nearly 15,500 Jordanians and refugees with disabilities.
Boosting Productivity on Family Farms
To expand farming families’ harvests so that they can feed themselves and generate income by selling produce, IOCC has trained farmers in animal husbandry and water conservation. IOCC support has helped build water catchments for reliable irrigation, greenhouses for increased productivity, and supplied farmers with cows, chickens, or goats so they can build up their herds—and their livelihoods.
Vocational Training & Job Fairs
IOCC connects Jordanians in need and refugees in Amman—including people with disabilities—with training and work opportunities. Since 2017, about 3,000 people have benefitted from IOCC’s Livelihoods Resource Center in East Amman. Programming includes individual job coaching, employability skills training, vocational training, job fairs to connect with employers, local internships, small grants to start businesses, and livelihood support groups. IOCC also promotes inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workforce through awareness raising among communities and employers.
Fadi’s Leap Forward
The Power of Expert Support
Can you imagine wanting to say a word, but being unable to form the sounds correctly?
Five-year-old Jordanian Fadi (not his real name) has apraxia of speech, and his challenges communicating left him isolated and frustrated. Despite two years of therapy at private centers in Amman, Jordan, he’d made no progress; he still had trouble imitating words, and his speech was unintelligible. Then Fadi’s father discovered an IOCC program with the Institute for Family Health supported by the Austrian Development Association and Diakonie ACT Austria. The program offered fresh hope.
After enrolling Fadi in speech and language assessments, the team completed articulation tests with him. Initially resistant to therapy, Fadi also received support from the psychosocial team. Additionally, an audiology clinic assessed his hearing.
Fadi has made remarkable strides. “Fadi used to cry [and] shout to express his needs, and he didn’t know how to play with his brothers,” his mother told staff. But now, she said, Fadi can form long words and sentences.
This progress depended on consistent home practice, and the boy’s mother attended therapy sessions and worked with him diligently. He also received glasses earlier this year, improving his vision and boosting his self-confidence—and accelerating his progress in speech therapy.
Family and teachers have all noticed Fadi’s improved speech, confidence, and self-esteem. He’s now more actively engaged in activities at school and at home, asking and answering questions effectively, and clearly expressing his emotions. Fadi’s transformation exemplifies how IOCC’s work equips people to shape positive changes in their lives.
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