AMMAN (JT) - HRH Princess Basma on Wednesday announced the allocation of JD30,000 to provide teaching aids for classrooms of students with learning difficulties .

The donation is part of the proceeds of the 2008 Queen Alia Social Work Competition, whose winners and sponsors were honoured at a ceremony yesterday .

Princess Basma underlined the importance of the competition′s theme for 2008 which focused on a pollution-free environment, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported .

The Princess called on young people to play a key role in changing incorrect practices that may harm the environment, noting that the competition was a source of inspiration and encouragement for students and schools to present initiatives for environment protection .

“We want the competition to become a means and a mechanism to instigate students′ awareness on matters that affect our daily life, besides its role in providing an equal opportunity for persons with special needs to receive knowledge and be brought up in a manner that works to involve them in the community,” she said .

The annual Queen Alia Social Work Competition seeks to shed light on hot issues such as water, environment and health, and raise public awareness on ways to help address these issues .

Launched by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development early October, the 2008 competition targeted students by distributing questionnaires to education departments across the country, along with thousands of leaflets containing suggestions on how to conserve the environment .

These include discouraging dropping litter in the streets and public parks and urging people to turn off unnecessary lights to help save energy .

As part of the competition, students were also trained how to capture environmental violations on camera .

Princess Basma launched the Queen Alia Social Work Competition in 1995 in an effort to change perceptions and attitudes about important social, health and environmental issues .

The annual contest focuses on raising general awareness by disseminating information on various social issues every year such as visual and hearing impairments, traffic accidents, smoking, cancer and the country′s water situation .

The national endeavour also seeks to achieve social solidarity by donating the competition′s proceeds to certain projects and centres concerned with the well-being of people with special needs .

At the end of yesterday′s event, Princess Basma presented awards to the winners and honoured government and private institutions and individuals who supported the competition .