Princess Haya, the wife of the Sheikh of Dubai, inaugurated the TongRenTang Clinic, the first such clinic in the Persian Gulf. It was opened at the Dubai Healthcare City, or DHCC.
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TongRenTang Clinic is known for its traditional Chinese medicine and procedures, such as natural herbs and acupuncture.
Dr Ayesha Abdullah, the Managing Director of Dubai Healthcare City said: “We are delighted that TongRenTang, the world-renowned Chinese brand, chose Dubai Healthcare City as its location of choice in the Gulf. As a pioneer in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which has been serving patients around the world for hundreds of years, the presence of TongRenTang will further support our vision to be a leading centre for high quality healthcare. We extend our heartiest congratulations to TongRenTang and a warm welcome to the DHCC community.”
Deyuan Wei, who helped with TongRenTang opening in the Gulf, said this about the business’ inauguraion: “It is such an honour for us to have HRH Princess Haya’s support for the opening of our first clinic in the Gulf. We are very excited to be in Dubai Healthcare City; the various teams at DHCC have been instrumental in making our dream a reality. They have guided us through the formalities and enabled everything to come together smoothly, allowing us to achieve what we have.”
TongRenTang began in 1699 and served even the Chinese imperial dynasties, such as the Qing.
If you happen to be looking closely at the above photo of Princess Haya, please note that your eyes are not fooling you. She does appear to be quite pregnant, and many royal watchers have noticed Haya is expecting her second child. It is not known how far along she is or when she is due.
The Princess already has a 3 year old daughter, Sheikha Al Jalila.
Dubai’s Princess Haya was in Lausanne, Switzerland Saturday to inaugurate the new headquarters of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI). Named after Haya’s father, the late King Hussein of Jordan, the project was three years in the making, and was funded by the Princess herself.
With her three year old daughter, Sheikha Al Jalila in her arms, Haya watched as Martin Fuchs of the Youth Olympic Games team champion cut the ribbons to officially open the King Hussein I Building.
“The building we are inaugurating has been designed to serve our wonderful sport,” said Princess Haya.
“I also feel an immense sense of pride knowing that this building carries the name of my late father and hope that this serves as a constant reminder to all of us who work at the FEI of a unique statesman, whose entire soul was devoted to the service of his people.
“Our new headquarters will play a key role for the FEI and our National Federations over the coming years. It will be the environment in which important discussions take place and fundamental decisions are taken as we continue our mission to advance the orderly growth of equestrian sport worldwide, while ensuring that the welfare of the horse and a level playing field remain at the centre of all that we do,” Haya said.
Worth $18 million, the new headquarters include offices for 62 employees plus a state of the art interactive gallery showcasing the equestrian sport.
Attending the opening was Infanta Pilar of Spain, who was the FEI president from 1994 – 2006 and Princess Lalla Amina, who is chairwoman of Morocco’s Federation of Equestrian Sports. The other 300 attendees included Olympians and Swiss officials.
Monday saw the wife of the ruler of Dubai, Princess Haya, inaugurate the 8th edition of DIHAD – the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development conference and exhibition. This year’s theme is called “New Technologies: How they Impact Humanitarian and Development Operations”.
WAM
After the ribbon cutting ceremony, Princess Haya spoke about how the latest technologies are affecting and changing the way humanitarian and development organizations collectively operate.
“There are exciting developments that now allow aid agencies to communicate and deliver services far more effectively than in the past both in humanitarian crises and development,” she said.
“Technological advances in areas like health and agriculture have had a dramatically positive impact on the lives of the poor and hungry. Technology also presents new ways to transfer cash or food rations to beneficiaries through the use of coupons or vouchers, bank cards and even cell phones.”
“However, not all technology is appropriate and even the technology itself can sometimes be seen as a cultural intrusion,” the Princess went on to say.
“Further complicating the picture is who has access to technology. If you had to assign a gender to technology it would most certainly be male and in the developing world men have far greater access to it, whether you are talking about something as simple as a cell phone or a complex mainframe computer. But our targets in humanitarian aid are far more likely directed at women and children who remain outside the circles of technology and market capitalism. This presents another significant challenge.”
After the opening ceremony, Princess Haya then toured DIHAD’s exhibitions. The programs involved included the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment, the UAE Red Crescent Society, the Tkiyet Umm Ali, the International Humanitarian City (IHC) and World Food Programme (WFP).
DIHAD is one of the largest humanitarian conferences in the world. It attracts local and international figures in the humanitarian efforts field.
For the 16th Dubai World Cup horse racing competition, the wife of the Sheikh of Dubai, Princess Haya, brought along her 3 year old daughter, Sheikha Al Jalila bint Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
Haya was every bit the doting mother as she carried Al Jalila to the Maydan Race Course. She hugged her daughter often and also played with her hair.
Even Al Jalila’s father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, held his little girl during the horse races.
The Meydan racecourse holds about 60,000 spectators in a one-mile long grandstand, hosted the second World Cup on Saturday with total prize money of $26 million.
This year’s winner was Victoire Pisa.
Princess Haya, who is half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, is president of the FEI – International Equestrian Federation. Both she and Sheikh Mohammed have a passion for horses.
Princess Haya, the wife of the Sheikh of Dubai, was re-elected as president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) on Friday during a voting session in Taiwan. The Jordanian-born Haya won 90 of 124 votes cast to win the required two-thirds majority. She will serve a second four year term.
REUTERS/Caren Firouz/FILE
“Thank you so much for your confidence and trust. I promise that I won’t let you down,” 36 year-old Princess Haya told delegates. “I am truly humbled by what you have done for me.”
She beat opponents Sven Holmberg of Sweden, who was the FEI vice president and got 23 votes, and Dutchman Henk Rottinghuis who got only 11 votes.
Haya won despite the controversy surrounding her first term. There were some saying she created a undemocratic atmosphere as she served as president.
“I took criticism seriously, and I have learned a lot, ” she said, adding that the greatest lesson she has learned was that it is important to cope with diverse cultures and deal with people in an international organization.
The Princess, who is the half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the equestrian event.
She has made it her mission to avoid any doping of the horses in the sport.
This will be Princess Haya’s last time as FEI President. One of the rules she changed in her first term was to have a two-term, four year presidency. Her tenure will end in 2014.
The wife of the Sheikh of Dubai, Princess Haya, is to run again as president of International Equestrian Federation (FEI). She announced this on Saturday, when the Princess published her program for re-election.
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“It has been a great privilege to serve as President of the FEI for the past four years, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to consolidate the gains and the progress we have made in a second and final term,” Haya said in a statement.
In Princess Haya’s outline, she pledges to develop an FEI Solidarity Program, based on the Olympic Solidarity model with athlete representation and full voting rights at FEI executive board level. She also plans to make formal connections between the FEI, racing, polo and other equine sport organizations.
Princess Haya even pledged that transportation and quarantine challenges will be addressed through compulsory microchipping of equestrian sport horses.
Additionally, there are plans for the FEI’s Veterinary Department to organize a full-fledged transport and quarantine section so eventually the FEI can ultimately ship the horses of the National Equestrian Federations to FEI championships.
“This is a wonderful time for our sport, which is growing around the world and attracting ever-increasing audiences,” Haya said in her statement.
“This has been a time to reflect on learnings and accomplishments, while also exploring ways that the FEI can better support National Federations and athletes; I’m very excited to share my program ideas, which have been born of my conversations with National Federations and members of our sporting family around the world. Any election is about the future; it’s a time to re-clarify our long-term goals and the steps we can take to strengthen our Federation and our sport. While I’m delighted with how far we’ve come, there is so much more we can do together, and I’m eager to have the opportunity to continue to lead our Federation’s transformation.”
The Princess, who is half-sister to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, was elected to the FEI in 2006 with the intention of modernizing the organization. She was the first to win an contested election for the FEI.
Among her achievements during her first term, Haya improved the FEI’s communications, marketing, animal welfare, finances, grass roots development and liaison with national federations. She also limited the presidency term to two four year terms.
The Princess began competing in equestrian sports when she was 13, and even represented Jordan in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
The election of the new FEI president will take place on November 5th in Taipei, Taiwan.
As president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), it is Princess Haya of Dubai’s position to oversee the development of equestrianism throughout the world. In Moscow Thursday, she was at the ceremonial signing of a memorandum on the development of equestrian sports, and on holding international competitions and establishment of a federal training center in Russia.
profimedia.cz, Topfoto/RIA News, Ilya Pitalev
With the Princess was Russia’s Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy, Vitaly Mutko, and the Equestrian Federation of Russia (COFEPRIS), Dmitry Titov.
Haya stressed the importance of signing the memorandum, noting that “Russia has made a significant contribution to the development of equestrian sport.”
“I am very pleased that we have reached full understanding with the Equestrian Federation of Russia and the Ministry on all matters relating to the future of equestrian sports. This is truly a happy day for our federation and, in general, our sport.”
According to Titov, the Federal Center for Development of equestrian sport will produce not only Russian athletes but also to help representatives of the Baltic States and other former Soviet countries. He stressed Russia’s past victories in equestrian.
“We have had successes up to the 1980s. In dressage, a very subjective discipline, we were on a 2-3-4 head and shoulders above the other contenders,” Titov said.
Princess Haya inaugurated the seventh annual Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development conference (DIHAD) on Sunday, which had this year’s theme as “Global Health Challenges of Tomorrow: Impact & Response.” Several international organizations gathered to discussed the recent humanitarian crisis in Haiti, food shortage and climate change.
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During DIHAD’s opening ceremony, Haya spoke of the need to bring changes to humanitarianism as its demand grows.
“The traditional solution to hunger is simply to produce more food – more wheat, maize or rice. It is not that simple. We need the right foods for the right people at the right times in their lives. To deal with hunger effectively, we need to target our interventions better,” she said. “Ultimately, we need to modify behaviors and encourage healthy lifestyles in order to reduce the soaring burden.”
The Princess also voiced her concern about the way aid money is raised and spent.
“Too often there is a humanitarian industry or a humanitarian bureaucracy that consumes too much of what is donated,” she said. “If we are to make progress on issues like hunger or the epidemic of obesity and cope with the massive humanitarian emergencies, the culture of aid must change.”
“The biggest global health challenges that we will face tomorrow are the ones we are creating today,” she continued. “Globalization, population growth, and climate change, all man-made, will have significant impacts on health.”
Haya also mentioned two major food problems: hunger and obesity, both of which are and will cause more health issues in the future.
“Despite a sharp rise in obesity rates, under-nutrition is still probably the greatest immediate threat to global health because it plays such a large role in deaths among young children,” she said. “But, the tsunami-like surge of overeating occurring worldwide is now creating a massive public health challenge in the form of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, stroke and heart disease.”
After DIHAD’s opening ceremony, Princess Haya was given a tour of the exhibits and stands set up for the conference. In this way, she met over 275 humanitarian and charity associations, relief agencies, NGOs, donors and procurers. Some of them included UNICEF, the World Food Program and the UAE Red Crescent Society.
On Tuesday, Dubai’s Princess Haya inaugurated the UAE Nursing and Midwifery Council at the emirate’s Atlantis in the Palm. It comes one year after Haya’s husband, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, decreed the council to show the UAE’s dedication to improving health care.
www.wam.ae
Among those in attendance were Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali, UAE Minister of Health, Humaid Al Qutami, UAE Minister of Education, and Princess Muna, the mother of King Abdullah II of Jordan – Princess Haya’s half-brother. Muna is President of the Jordanian Nursing Council (JNC) and Patron of Nursing & Midwifery for the WHO-EMRO.
Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali gave a speech during the ceremony, in which he said: “The Council will also authorize health organizations as nursing training centers, stipulate the foundations and criteria for raising the profession’s standards, propose new legislations and practices to promote nursing and midwifery to achieve quality and excellence in their services.”
At the end of the inauguration, the two Princesses and Dr. Ali gave out certificates to the Council’s task force members. Princess Muna also gave Haya an award on behalf of the Jordanian Nursing Council.
Haya and Muna have a close relationship. Princess Muna was wife to the late King Hussein until the mid-1970′s when he divorced her to marry Alia Touqan, Haya’s mother. Sadly, Queen Alia would die in a 1977 helicopter crash, and Princess Muna comforted the Queen’s three very young children. The Princess once said in an interview that Muna, “has been more like a mother to me than anyone else I know.”
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