By Peter Townson

HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani during his trip to monitor the progress of the fund in 2008

In line with Qatar’s dedication to the enhancement of education, some $38.1mn of the Qatar Katrina Fund was donated to educational projects throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Chairman of the fund Nasser al-Khalifa expressed his hope that the compassion shown by the Qatari government and people will inspire the recipients of the fund to show similar empathy for others in need in the future.

Former ambassador to the US Nasser al-Khalifa with some of the ‘Qatar scholars’ the Qatar Katrina Fund supported through their education

Al-Khalifa explained that meeting the ‘Qatar scholars’ who were awarded scholarships by the Qatar Katrina Fund was a particular highlight of the project.
“We have now provided education for 2,135 ‘Qatar scholars’ and I hope that when they make it in the future, they will help others as well,” he said.
“And I hope that they will remember that it came from Qatar and that they think of Qatar fondly – the distance between our countries may be far but our hearts and minds are close by,” he added.
Al-Khalifa said he would like to see more exchange programmes between students from the US and Qatar.
“Hopefully in the future we will see not only lecturers but students coming to Qatar from the US,” said al-Khalifa, lending his support to exchange programmes between Qatar University and those the fund supported in the US.
“I would like to see more sharing of knowledge,” he said, adding “people are enemies of what they do not know.”