Aqaba is the only Jordanian sea port city that lies on the Red Sea. This peaceful town has a population of ninety thousand inhabitants, governed by ASEZA that started operations in 2001, and took the responsibility to raise health awareness in the local community, which was the primary task of the Health Control Directorate in ASEZA.

USAID, through its Aqaba Zone Economic Mobilization (AZEM) Project, was interested in helping create awareness, and provide the resources to carry out this mission since the local community was lacking such informative campaigns, to reduce food poisoning and the mishandling of food products.

Mr. Abdullah Al Hajji from the Health Awareness section provided us with valuable information about the program. In order to determine the community status and needs for awareness, the directorate conducted a survey directed to individuals in the community, and the results show that 70% of those interviewed lacked information and understanding of the benefits of good practice of food handling.

There was a need for preparing brochures, booklets and posters and other informative materials, to create and increase food safety awareness. And in order to accomplish this mission, AZEM brought in US professional consultants in Public Health and food safety who provided valuable information to prepare brochures and informative materials. In order to convey the message to the target groups, USAID funded printing posters, quiz booklets, guidelines and manuals, fliers, calendars, rulers and pens, to be the tools used to reach different target groups.

The health directorate set a plan to get the most out of the materials and reach the target groups: commercial food managers and handlers, housewives, primary and secondary school pupils and post secondary school pupils.

The first stage included conducting an awareness campaign in primary and secondary schools to teach them about food safety and provide a wide range of information.

The directorate measures its success, and the success of the aiding material, by the doing quizzes for the students to see if they read the booklets and brochures and didn't just discard them, and to gauge if pupils interacted with the instructor during and after awareness sessions.

In addition, the directorate benefits from the feedback to the lecturers on awareness sessions and yet another indicator of success. The feedback can also be measured by the questions asked, and requests for additional lectures and discussion roundtables.

Mr. Hajji gave an example of the awareness that is starting to spread between school pupils. He says " During my visits to primary schools, one kid approached me and said, you know I went to buy ice cream from the mini market and there I saw meat is stored in the same refrigerator with ice cream, so I didn't buy from this store. I knew it will not be safe to eat." This statement by this little kid, gave Mr. Hajji pleasure, to see that the awareness materials and sessions paid off.

The second phase of the program, started mid December 2006, and it targets the public clinics and Maternity centers. Through them they will reach housewives. So far the directorate received positive feedback form the sessions and materials distributed.

The Third Phase will be targeted towards the commercial sector including food handlers, grocery shops and restaurants, and will start after completing the second phase.

The directorate has big ambitions to start an intranet between the Health Control Directorate and Hospitals in Aqaba, in order to track down cases of food poisoning, and have accurate statistics in this field. Moreover, they are planning to start a mobile Information Center, a vehicle that has all brochure, booklets and fliers about food safety, to distribute them throughout Aqaba, so every person has the chance to get information, and have information delivered to his front yard.

The Health Control Directorate is striving to deliver awareness in every part of Aqaba, and they are putting much effort to make their awareness campaigns successful, and to be a role model all over Jordan.