Leadership in time of challenge and promise

by Dr. Curt Rhodes
Dr. Curt Rhodes
April 09, 2021

In the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a place suddenly in the newsfeeds to our phones and laptops, there are countless uncles and aunties, grannies, mothers and fathers who want the best for children in that country, especially for those youth who have missed opportunities due to conflict in the region. There are young people whom any one of us would be proud to know, to work with, to read about, to hire.

I know this because I have worked alongside these young people for 30 years. I have also engaged with those who are committed to these youth: government officials, school headmasters, community organizers – to mention just a few – all of whom are highly aware of the value of the past and the promise of the future, a link that His Majesty the late King Hussein referred to as the generations to come that motivated him to persevere, never to give up.

In this small country of remarkable potential, we have been able to achieve positive things with youth that are amazing examples of what can be done when we respect and rely on the energies of young people. And these positive things have been possible through the cooperation of governing authorities and people of good will in numerous agencies in the Kingdom.

Even in this very dangerous time of COVID infection, we are able to serve 60% of the youth originally enrolled in our alternative education initiative with the Department (Ministry) of Education. Lots of adults and youth working together for continuity of learning! We are able to provide family and individual trauma counseling for refugee youth, with the close cooperation of Jordanian officials responsible for security and health. 

Questscope is a non-profit organization in Jordan, accredited to undertake the accomplishment of goals for social development, particularly for marginalized youth. We have benefited for decades from the stability of the Kingdom, which allows all who share these same goals to move forward for the betterment of the circumstances of youth and their families. The recent mediation of HRH Prince Hassan, the uncle of HM King Abdullah and the uncle of HRH Prince Hamzeh is an example of the quality of leadership in the Kingdom, for which we hold great respect and gratitude. 

The world in which we all live is fraught with challenges – many of them unprecedented in our time. People of good will and leaders with good insight will help us all to overcome and thrive, inshallah - as God desires it to be

Curt pic1
Founder & Chief Vision Officer

Dr. Curt Rhodes

Curt Rhodes has spent close to 40 years working with, and on behalf of, marginalized communities and young people across the Middle East.

As the recipient of the 2014 Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Dr. Rhodes was recognized by Tufts University for his demonstrated compassion and tenacity in creating a highly effective and determined organization dedicated to the survival and nurturing of the most vulnerable and disenfranchised.

In recognition of his work with marginalized youth in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and in the region, Dr. Rhodes was awarded 2011 Social Entrepreneur of the Year for the Middle East and North Africa by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Rhodes began his career in the Middle East in the early 1980s, as Assistant Dean in the School of Public Health at the American University of Beirut. During the 1982 invasion of west Beirut, he volunteered in a community-based clinic alongside students and friends, doing around-the-clock triage for wounded and ill civilians. That was when the seed idea for Questscope began to take shape. Living and working with people in great suffering compelled him to find a way that he and others in the Middle East could assist the most vulnerable: participating with the voiceless ones in invisible communities.

In 1988, Questscope was founded with the goal of putting the last, first. From the beginning, Questscope worked closely with local communities, identifying their aspirations and together addressing their greatest needs.

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