Russaifah is a city in Zarqa Governorate in the Kingdom of Jordan. It had a population of about 280,000, making it the fourth-largest city in Jordan, after Amman, Irbid, and Zarqa. This City was and still is a refugee place for many Circassians and Palestinians who fled from their countries. However it’s an underdeveloped area by all means socially, politically, economically and environmentally. So based on reviving public spaces project we managed to implement some beautifying murals on abandoned school walls.
This initiative was implemented by young boys and girls, who were excited to indulge in this momentum and be part of this project in order to benefit from it on a personal level and also to serve their community in a way that might influence others. This was the result, members of their community and neighborhood were fully excited to paint and draw, and put their personal touch on a public property, giving them a feeling of satisfaction that they’re doing good for their community and are beginning to understand the meaning of a public space and how to improve it, protect it and utilize it in the best way possible, even when resources are too scarce and minimal.
Many artistic creative murals were created to raise awareness on the water issue in Jordan and on the pollution issue that has been happening for the last decade in Jordan and in Russeifah specifically. They intended to paint school walls because they thought this could be a powerful method to influence students and send a direct message making them able to read it anytime during the day.
Reviving public spaces project focuses on utilizing the public space to turn it into something else by utilizing it and creating change within the environment and members of the society. Leaders of tomorrow youth initiatives focuses mainly on Reviving public spaces project and activities provides comparative perspective on Social change in communities, framing cultures and mobilizing people. The project also helps shedding light on community behavior and practices, by giving out solutions and actual implementation of creative developing interventions. In addition to promoting cooperation that occurred between community members who influenced positive behavior in their surroundings and allowed positive behavior and practices to flourish, such as preserving their area and coming up with creative solutions for future development purposes.
