By Peter Townson
Staff Reporter
Thousands of needy people have benefited from the $100mn Qatar Katrina Fund, donated by HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on behalf of the people of the state, which has now been fully committed to projects aimed at rehabilitating the areas in the US affected by a devastating hurricane in 2005.
The chairman of the fund and former ambassador to the US, Nasser al-Khalifa, told Gulf Times that the entire donation had been given to some 18 projects throughout Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, and that all the projects had now been completed.
Al-Khalifa explained how the fund had come about, saying that following the hurricane he had received a phone call from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, now also the Prime Minister, HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani, who conveyed the Emir’s wishes to make the generous donation to the people affected.
After the commitment of the money, there were discussions about how best to assign the funds, and al-Khalifa explained: “I said there are two ways – one, you can give it to the US government but you will have no control over it, or we could do it differently – and they said they wanted me to handle the donation.”
Al-Khalifa, who was newly-appointed Qatari ambassador to the US at the time, said that he had taken the job of chairing the fund on one condition – no interference from Doha or Washington on how the fund would be disbursed.
He formed a legal plan for how the fund would be organised, recruiting influential figures such as former US secretary of state James A Baker III, Georgetown University president John DeGioia, former chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Lee Raymond and University of California at Berkeley professor and former advisor to president Clinton Laura D’Andrea Tyson to an advisory committee which would assist in identifying projects for the fund to support.
Al-Khalifa explained that with the help of the committee, they managed to identify 18 projects, each aimed at providing either medical care, housing or education to which they assigned the funds.
“Unfortunately, looking at different projects around the world, a large amount of the money is spent on administrative costs,” he said, adding “I didn’t want that – I wanted it the way HH the Emir wanted it to be done, and that is that every single penny would go into the project.”
He explained that transparency was something else he needed to guarantee and so he recruited two legal firms to assist with legal regulations and auditing, ensuring that all the funds were spent directly on the projects and nothing in between.
“I was given the full trust of my government and I wanted to represent not only the government, but the people of Qatar, and so it had to be done in a professional way,” he added.
In terms of education, the fund reopened a children’s community centre, renovated damaged schools and mosques and built the “Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion” at Xavier University which is set to be officially opened this year as well as providing funds and scholarships to students.
More than 2,000 “Qatar scholars” now have the chance to finish their education as a result of the fund – a fact of which al-Khalifa is particularly proud.
He is similarly pleased with the efforts of the other projects, claiming that it was “touching” to see the people who benefited from the donation.
The fund also contributed towards housing developments, renovations and providing financial assistance, as well as a number of medical projects, providing free healthcare to those in need, including projects such as the ‘March of Dimes’ project which provides prenatal care to expectant mothers.
“Hundreds of families now have their own accommodation – some of them told me it was the first time they were able to actually own homes,” he said, adding “and thousands of people have benefited from the healthcare provided by the projects supported by the fund.”
“We are all witnesses to the pain of our brothers and sisters, no matter where we are from or our beliefs,” he argued, adding “we are all human beings – humanity is our family.”
“The pain of one is the pain of all, the question is what we can do to help improve the lives of others,” he added.
HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani visited the US Gulf Coast in 2008 to monitor the progress of the fund, and al-Khalifa said that the Emir was pleased with the progress of the projects and proud of the work the Qatari fund had managed to carry out.
“I was very happy that he was happy with the outcome,” he said, adding “this is his legacy – it was his idea.”
Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States with devastating effect on August 28, 2005. It was estimated that more than 1,800 people had lost their lives and more than $81bn in damages occurred.
|
