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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.
 Petra News Agency 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.
Sources: Zawya, The National
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.”
Princess Haya, the wife of the Sheikh Dubai, was one of the recipients of the German Der Steiger Award on Saturday. She was acknowledged the sports portion because of her commitment to the activity.
 profimedia.cz/Zuma Press As a former Olympic athlete, the Princess is known for her position as the president of the International Equestrian Federation and as an International Olympic Committee member. She is also the president of the Dubai Organizing Committee for the SportAccord Convention 2010. Haya’s experience as an athlete has influenced her role as a philanthropist.
“The virtues of the Der Steiger are the same values that we cherish in sports. The only thing that matters in sports is your performance. And a winning performance isn’t measured just by medal counts. It is measured by behavior,” Princess Haya said upon receiving the award. “The equality of competition can be particularly empowering for women and young girls. For far too many of them, sport is the one opportunity they have to break free from societal norms that stifle their creativity, their passion and their dreams.”
The Der Steiger Award is given out annually. A private initiative, is awarded to personalities for respectfulness, openness, humanity and tolerance. The categories for the Der Steiger are sports, music, media, film and the environment.
On Sunday, the wife of the Sheikh of Dubai, Princess Haya, inaugurated the Family Gathering Village in Dubai’s Al Khawaneej area. The village is a family oriented project which includes theaters, poetry cafe, houses of crafts and other forms of entertainment and culture. It will run until March 27th.
 Emirates News Agency As patron of the Family Gathering Village, Haya visited various areas of the village, starting with the traditional area. She commended the creativity and energy the different locations gave off and admired the products on display.
After touring the traditional part, the Princess then visited the Village’s Souq. Many items at the Souq, like perfumes, clothing, accessories, were created by young children as part of the Souq’s efforts to encourage children’s projects.
Colonel Ahmed Al Mansoori, spokesman of the Family Gathering Village, explained that the event is a new addition to the family development strategy recently adopted by the government. Holding such events, he claims, will have positive results on the entire community.
On Friday, Dubai’s Princess Haya arrived in Port-au-Prince to deliver 90 metric tons of humanitarian aid for the people of Haiti, following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake more than 10 days earlier. The Princess did this as a U.N. Messenger of Peace, and the supplies came from the International Humanitarian City (IHC), a global humanitarian and aid hub in Dubai which she is chairwoman of. This airlift was done out of the request of the UN World Food Program (WFP).
 REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/FILE “The entire world grieves for the suffering in Haiti. Dubai may be far away, but we join in reaching out to Haitian families who have lost so much and are struggling now just to survive,” said Haya. “The sad truth is that Haiti has long been neglected. This earthquake is a collective wake-up call for the international community. Yes, we need to deliver food, medicines and water today — fast. But we must stay committed to Haitians as they rebuild. After decades of failed aid, Haiti is the poorest and hungriest place in the Americas. We cannot let that stand.”
40 of the 90 metric tons were that of food, while the rest were that of hospital tents, water sanitation equipment, prefabricated offices, and computer and telecommunications equipment.
While in Haiti, the Princess met with the country’s top officials, plus United Nations officials.
She returned to Amman, Jordan, the country she was born and raised in, with 21 evacuees who originate from the Middle East. Upon boarding the plane with them, the evacuees applauded Haya and hugged her. Some of them had small children with them.
When Haya landed in Amman, she was welcomed by her brother, Prince Ali who is currently serving as regent as King Abdullah II is on state visits. The two siblings hugged and held hands, as Ali proudly showed he was proud of his sister.
In April, Dubai will be hosting the 2010 SportAccord International Convention, one of the major networking events for leaders in sports. During a press conference today, Princess Haya, the wife of the Sheikh of Dubai, talked about why the emirate is an ideal location for the convention.
 wam.ae “As a leading trade, tourism and business hub and as a center of sports in this region Dubai is ideally suited for this role,” she explained. “The promoters were right in choosing Dubai as a destination.”
Haya, who is president of the International Equestrian Federation as well as an IOC member, will be working with the Dubai Sports Council in hosting the event.
The SportAccord International Convention will take place on the Jumeirah Island between April 25 – 30th, with over 1,500 representatives gathering.
Dubai’s Princess Haya was in Kenya this weekend, where she campaigned for food aid to the impoverished area.
 PRNewsFoto/Office of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein “As many as 20 million people in the region around the Horn of Africa are suffering from food shortages that have been exacerbated by the prolonged drought. One in every 10 Kenyans needs outside help, and malnutrition rates among young children are rising at an alarming rate,” Princess Haya said. “We must do more.”
As a UN Messenger of Peace, Haya, the wife of the Sheikh of Dubai and half-sister to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, helped give out food to needy people during her visit to Kenya. She also met with President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to discuss ways to fight hunger in the country. In addition, the Princess received briefings from the Haruma Nursing Home Maternal and Child Health project and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. The latter is the largest private effort promoting agricultural production in Africa.
Finally, Princess Haya stopped by the Mathare Youth Sports Association in support of the UN Sport for Development and Peace program. The youth group uses sports training to promote overall education and to help Kenyan children stay
in school.
Her trip was organized by the World Food Program (WFP).
The wife of the ruler of Dubai, Princess Haya, called for more investment into medical research during a conference in Egypt on Friday.
 WAM.ae “The progress that we have seen in the last 25 years in pediatric cardiology could not have happened without adequate funding,” the Princess said. “Many efforts have been made, but much more needs to be done as we acquire more experience and develop better relationships with international groups to spread the benefits of medical research as widely as possible.”
Haya serves as an honorary president of the Chain of Hope, which is part of the Aswan Heart Center in Egypt, where yesterday’s conference took place.
In honor of Haya’s efforts to draw more attention to pediatric health in the Mideast region, the Center will name its pediatric unit, which is to open in 2011, after the Princess’s daughter, Sheikha Al Jalila.
Al Jalila, who will be 3 this year, already has a housing unit for pediatric cardiology patients in South Africa named after her, plus an Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital in the United Arab Emirates.
On Tuesday, Princess Caroline of Hannover travelled to Dubai and met with Princess Haya, the wife of Sheikh Mohammed, who is both ruler of Dubai and the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. The meeting 0f these two women focused on humanitarian issues, which the two are active in. 
After meeting and talking with Haya, Caroline went to attend a luncheon hosted by the Young President’s Organization’s (YPO) in Dubai, a structure whose primary objective is to provide young presidents of companies the opportunity to meet, exchange their knowledge and experiences.
The luncheon brought together thirty of the most eminent personalities from the world of finance.
On Wednesday, Princess Caroline attended another luncheon, this time held by the Rotary Club of Dubai at the emirate’s World Trade Center.
The reason for Caroline to be in Dubai at this time is likely for her to avoid testifying at her husband’s trial tomorrow.
Monday night, Dubai’s Princess Haya hosted a charity auction where various sporting items were auctioned off. The money raised from this event – a total of $1 million – went to help Palestinian children. 
Dressed in a bright green gown, Haya spoke to those in attendance about the importance of sports in the Middle East.
“Our passion for sport in this region provides us with an opportunity to change lives and develop young people. None of us have the capacity to individually solve the problems of the world, but collectively, we can help find solutions and provide hope to the children and youth of Palestine.”
The items auctioned included footballs and tennis balls made in the slums of Kenya, plus various t-shirts. All items were signed by major sporting figures such as tennis greats Roger Frederer and Venus and Serena William. The head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, put his signature on a football as did UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
The galal auction was sponsored by the United Nations. Princess Haya is a UN Messenger of Peace.
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