Over the years, he has written books on nutrition, infectious diseases and public health, and several research papers on autism in peer reviewed journals. It is worth noting that prior to leaving Iraq, Dr. Alshaban worked as a physician and authored a host of research papers. He served as director general and adviser at the office of the Minister of Health.
Gulf Times’ visit to Dr Alshaban’s office coincided with conducting a research based diagnostic test for a child as part of a project titled “Digital Phenotyping for Social Communication Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder”, in collaboration with Argus Cognitive and Rush University of Chicago. The child’s parents suspected their son is autistic and were interested to participate in Dr Fouad’s research project.
Dr Fouad Alshaban (extreme right) poses for a picture along with Abdullah bin Ghanim Abdullah al-Binali al-Mohannadi, Editor-in-Chief of Arrayah (second from left) and Captain Mohamed Suhail Shakou, technical expert (left) while Gulf Times Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka handing over a memento to Abdulrahman Abdulqadir, the first Qatari to win a medal at the Paralympic Games, during a reception held at Gulf Times in honour of Abdulqadir on November 7, 2021.
Dr Alshaban held an evaluation session with the child’s parents about their son’s behaviour at home and school. His assessment was that the child did not show a condition of ASD and advised them to proceed with any medical diagnostic centre, e.g., Shafallah, Sidra Medicine, --etc. for evaluation and diagnosis. They will in their turn counsel the parents on the type and level of neurodevelopmental intervention needed for their child.
Gulf Times’ visit to Dr Alshaban’s office coincided with conducting a research based diagnostic test for a child as part of a project titled “Digital Phenotyping for Social Communication Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder”, in collaboration with Argus Cognitive and Rush University of Chicago. The child’s parents suspected their son is autistic and were interested to participate in Dr Fouad’s research project.
Dr Fouad Alshaban (extreme right) poses for a picture along with Abdullah bin Ghanim Abdullah al-Binali al-Mohannadi, Editor-in-Chief of Arrayah (second from left) and Captain Mohamed Suhail Shakou, technical expert (left) while Gulf Times Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka handing over a memento to Abdulrahman Abdulqadir, the first Qatari to win a medal at the Paralympic Games, during a reception held at Gulf Times in honour of Abdulqadir on November 7, 2021.
Dr Alshaban held an evaluation session with the child’s parents about their son’s behaviour at home and school. His assessment was that the child did not show a condition of ASD and advised them to proceed with any medical diagnostic centre, e.g., Shafallah, Sidra Medicine, --etc. for evaluation and diagnosis. They will in their turn counsel the parents on the type and level of neurodevelopmental intervention needed for their child.
DETERMINED: “I am glad that I can help with raising the families’ awareness about autism and am actively involved in the development of an easy way for diagnosing it as early as possible. We hope to continue contributing to the community in Qatar,” says Dr Fouad Alshaban.
Dr Alshaban said: “Families need to get timely diagnosis and treatment for their autistic children; the intervention will address the child’s behaviour and assist him in integrating with peer groups. It will encourage the child to play with other children and friends to motivate him to communicate and relate to lessons during class time.”
Dr Alshaban stressed: “At QBRI, we are very open to parents with children having ASD conditions who wish to participate in our different ongoing research projects on autism. We were involved in the diagnosis of 300 children for research purposes, between 2020 and 2021.”
A breakthrough study
Dr Alshaban’s most recent book is the fruit of a seven-year project conducted with a team from QBRI’s Neurological Disorders Research Center (NDRC), where files of 1,450 children diagnosed with autism were reviewed. A total of 93 primary schools in Qatar were involved in screening for autism using social communication questionnaires. Students between the ages of 5-12 were chosen to be part of the screening. Dr Alshaban said: “This procedure constitutes the major strength of the study when compared with other research that considers medical registries.”
He added: “The prevalence study produced unanticipated results, as the team found the ASD prevalence rate to be one in 87 among children between 5-12 years (a rate of 1.14%) in Qatar. The team’s findings differed from statistical reports which rated the prevalence at one in 3,000. These findings highlight the need to increase the number of specialists and enhance their competencies in the phenotyping and diagnosis of ASD. QBRI cooperated with trainers from the UK who trained 43 professionals and specialists from various health and rehabilitation institutions in Qatar to be licensed in the ADOS-2 (the golden-standard tool for clinical autism diagnosis). This, of course, will help to ensure faster and more efficient diagnostic services than what was previously available.”
Dr Alshaban explained he has been a physician for more than 30 years, with experience in medicine and in epidemiology. “For the last 15 years, I have been involved in research about autism, phenotyping, and diagnosis.”
Dr Alshaban’s experiences in Qatar
Dr Alshaban talked about his experiences in Qatar and how he landed at QBRI.
He said: “At the Shafallah Genetic Medical Center, we were involved in doing research in genetics, and other disorders related to individuals with disabilities and among them, ASD. In 2014, the whole center was incorporated with QBRI. However, we continued to do the same research on autism that we started at the Shafallah. Currently, we are doing a different research project on autism.”
Dr Alshaban went on to explain that “QBRI has three research centers - the Neurological Disorders Research Center (NDRC), the Diabetes Research Center (DRC), and the Translational Cancer and Immuity Center (TCIC).
“At the NDRC, we are now working on neurodevelopmental disorders which include mainly autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which is known as ADHD, epilepsy, and other developmental conditions. In addition, we have a research project on neurodegenerative conditions and disorders, like Parkinsonism - the collection of signs and symptoms found in Parkinson’s disease - and dementia. Other colleagues in addition to my team are working mainly on epidemiology, phenotyping and diagnosis of autism, biomarkers research programme, which includes genetics research for autism, the stem cells and functional studies. In addition, we have inter-disciplinary research projects, which involve researchers from the three QBRI research centers.”
A practical guide to autism
In introducing his recent guide to ASD Dr Alshaban said: “Dealing with families who have children with autism and other neuro-developmental conditions made me think I need to contribute to the awareness programmes. World Autism Awareness Day was first proposed to the United Nations by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser , Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, in 2007, and the proposal was adopted without a vote by the UN General Assembly. April 2 was set to mark World Autism Awareness Day.
We usually have an annual awareness programme in April. A number of awareness activities are held to guide people on how to seek advice and ask help for diagnosis and intervention. Therefore, I thought I should write a practical guide, not only for families with children with autism, but also for any families with a newborn baby. It guides them about their baby’s normal development, what to do, where to go and ask for help for any critical condition of autism.”
Dr Alshaban defines autism as ‘a neurodevelopmental disorder of variable severity that affects children before they reach three years. He added: “In characterized cases, we find a persistent deficit in social communication, and social interaction, which makes the child unwilling to interact with other children or with other peers. They will show restricted repetitive behaviours, such as repeating certain words and actions, like hand shaking or playing with toys, etc. The symptoms should show in early childhood and interfere with the normal behavior of a normal child. When the family notices this, they need to seek advice.”
Recent studies and research on autism at QBRI
Dr Alshaban went on to talk about his main research on the eye tracking project for the creation of an objective tool for early diagnosis of ASD. “It has almost reached its conclusion and we are working with the Cleveland Clinic to create a software and a hardware that will be available for the clinics in Qatar for early detection and diagnosis of autism.
“The other project we are carrying out is to create a registry for those aged 13 and above in Qatar who are affected by autism. This is done in collaboration with the Shafallah Center, Qatar Autism Society and other local stakeholders.
“A further project is about introducing machine learning and artificial intelligence for the early diagnosis of autism using the ADOS-2 autism diagnostic tool, in collaboration with Argus Cognitive in the US, and with Rush University, in Chicago, Illinois. Funded mainly by Argus, it is a two-year project which started three months ago.
“We are also concluding another project about the effect of COVID-19 on autism in Qatar. There are also other research projects on the genetics in autism at QBRI, the biomarker study and the functional studies on autism.”
Dr Alshaban explained: “Usually a family would find something wrong in their newborn baby’s development, well after the first or second month, depending on the severity of the condition. Some symptoms start earlier and in other cases the parents find that their newborn baby is developing normally until they reach the age of 18 months to two years.
Then, all of a sudden for one reason or another, the child will regress, which means that he will lose whatever skills he has learned, whether in speech or behaviour, and more and more symptoms of autism will appear which make the family seek help. Now, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Qatar recommends the well-baby clinics, which are available in all the health centers. They check the baby at 12 and 18 months (old) and at two years usually to detect early signs of autism. If they find anything wrong, they refer them to the specialized centers.
"Being a member of the Autism Plan Committee, I was actively involved in the discussion about this initiative with other professionals in Qatar from Hamad Medical Corporation and the MoPH and other colleagues. Now, there is better awareness about autism in Qatar.”
Dr Alshaban stressed why autism occurs in some families but not others in Qatar and elsewhere. “Until now, there are no definite causes for autism. Research has found that genes will play a very important part in causing autism. However, genes alone are not the only cause, sometimes they need a trigger mechanism, what we call the environmental factors, or the epigenetic factors. For instance, there is some genetic liability, some mutation in certain genes, but if a pregnant mother is exposed to a disease like German measles, fever or flu, or is taking medicine used for the treatment of epilepsy, they might trigger the mechanism and cause the signs of ASD to appear on the newborn baby. So, we cannot say there is a clear-cut cause for this disorder, but sometimes it runs in families.”
Dr Alshaban called on parents across the board to understand that autism is a spectrum, and individuals with autism sometimes have very mild symptoms, what is known as high functioning ASD. This means they have certain problems in social communication with other people, or avoiding sitting or playing with other children, so this is the high functioning. There are many examples of these conditions; it used to be known as Asperger syndrome. It is characterized by reduced social interaction, lack of nonverbal skills, and clumsiness. Others might have very severe symptoms, sometimes co-existing with other disorders and disease conditions, called co-morbidities, which complicate the whole picture of autism even more. For instance, 50% of autism comes with ADHD, sometimes it comes with epilepsy. Dr Alshaban said: “About 20 to 30% of those with ASD have epilepsy, 50 to 70% of autistics have intellectual disability, anxiety disorder, sleep problems, gastrointestinal problems, so it usually comes with those co-morbidities. That’s why ASD is a spectrum and includes so many different co-morbidities and this will make it even more difficult to diagnose and to treat.”
He recalled that the prevalence rate found in Qatar “is very precise i.e., one per 87 children (1.14%). The WHO rate says it is 0.5 to 1%, which means it is less than what we found, and the Americans found the rate of one per 54 children, which is higher than Qatar. These figures date from two years ago, and based on my ongoing research and records, they are increasing for several reasons. For the treatment of autism, we must be realistic, there is no cure for autism, but treatment or intervention will help the autistic child, so that he might get improvement in symptoms with better development. Especially when the intervention and treatment starts early, and for the high functioning cases, we have many good examples. So many people can finish college, they become scientists. Elon Musk is autistic high functioning and you can see what he has done with Tesla cars, the space rockets and so many other ideas.”
Dr Alshaban considers this as a factor for Musk’s achievement. “Yes, some autistic people are called savant. They form 5 to 8% of autistic people and have special skills. I know a British case who has a digital memory. If he walks around and looks at anything then when you ask him to draw it, he will replicate it exactly as if it was a photograph. I have the slides of when he flew in a helicopter over New York, after which he drew every single building, the number of windows were exactly like a photograph. He did it in London, Singapore, and he only looked at them from the helicopter, he has a digital memory. We have musicians like Beethoven, Mozart; inventors like Edison, Graham Bell, Einstein, - who are known or suspected to have autism. A certain percentage of autistic people are gifted.”
Dr Alshaban went on to mention the many cases he has come across about success stories with autism. He recalled: “Here in Qatar, they did very well, and I have the example of an American autistic person, Stephen Shore, who finished his PhD and is now working with Autism Speaks, the largest autism research organization in the United States. He published a number of books on autism. There are many examples of people who went through a very comprehensive and early intervention and they did extremely well. The earlier you detect the condition, and the earlier you start the intervention, the more likely you are to get very good results.”
Dr Alshaban is very keen on earlier diagnosis, treatment and finding ways to prevent the disorder from reoccurring. “I would say we can do something not to prevent, but at least to help in avoiding that condition. For instance, our advice from what we found is that the older the parents are the higher the chance for them to have a child with autism. We also found that pregnant women who use certain medications or misuse certain drugs, alcohol, or are exposed to toxic products or pollution will put their babies at risk.
It has been found that people who live near an area where the air pollution caused by herbicides or insecticides used in farming have a higher risk. So, these are the risks and they need to be very careful to avoid them. Pregnant women should avoid getting infection, fever, all these steps will help prevent autism. There are certain conditions for which we can do some counseling for the family to avoid getting an autistic child. For instance, a family with a case of autism called fragile X, which is a mutation in the X chromosome, have a higher risk of their next child having ASD. We guide them to do the in vitro fertilization (IVF) and to detect if there is a mutation to avoid that.”
Dr Alshaban is very focused on ongoing and future research on ASD in Qatar and abroad. “We are currently doing research on genetics and hope to find some biomarkers to be able to early diagnose autism. There are similar projects abroad too. I am glad that in Qatar we are leading autism research in the whole region, in collaboration with so many institutes whether locally or overseas. Now we are collaborating with Sultan Qaboos University in doing genetic research and also trying to help them in the prevalence study.”
As far as the future of the Argus Cognition software and hardware are concerned, Dr Alshaban pointed out that until now the test is a subjective one and it depends on the experience of the person who administers it. “We are trying with Argus to help make it more objective through machine learning and artificial intelligence in the near future.”
He concluded with a message to families: “I am glad that I can help with raising the families’ awareness about autism and am actively involved in the development of an easy way for diagnosing it as early as possible. We hope to continue contributing to the community in Qatar.”
Dr Alshaban said: “Families need to get timely diagnosis and treatment for their autistic children; the intervention will address the child’s behaviour and assist him in integrating with peer groups. It will encourage the child to play with other children and friends to motivate him to communicate and relate to lessons during class time.”
Dr Alshaban stressed: “At QBRI, we are very open to parents with children having ASD conditions who wish to participate in our different ongoing research projects on autism. We were involved in the diagnosis of 300 children for research purposes, between 2020 and 2021.”
A breakthrough study
Dr Alshaban’s most recent book is the fruit of a seven-year project conducted with a team from QBRI’s Neurological Disorders Research Center (NDRC), where files of 1,450 children diagnosed with autism were reviewed. A total of 93 primary schools in Qatar were involved in screening for autism using social communication questionnaires. Students between the ages of 5-12 were chosen to be part of the screening. Dr Alshaban said: “This procedure constitutes the major strength of the study when compared with other research that considers medical registries.”
He added: “The prevalence study produced unanticipated results, as the team found the ASD prevalence rate to be one in 87 among children between 5-12 years (a rate of 1.14%) in Qatar. The team’s findings differed from statistical reports which rated the prevalence at one in 3,000. These findings highlight the need to increase the number of specialists and enhance their competencies in the phenotyping and diagnosis of ASD. QBRI cooperated with trainers from the UK who trained 43 professionals and specialists from various health and rehabilitation institutions in Qatar to be licensed in the ADOS-2 (the golden-standard tool for clinical autism diagnosis). This, of course, will help to ensure faster and more efficient diagnostic services than what was previously available.”
Dr Alshaban explained he has been a physician for more than 30 years, with experience in medicine and in epidemiology. “For the last 15 years, I have been involved in research about autism, phenotyping, and diagnosis.”
Dr Alshaban’s experiences in Qatar
Dr Alshaban talked about his experiences in Qatar and how he landed at QBRI.
He said: “At the Shafallah Genetic Medical Center, we were involved in doing research in genetics, and other disorders related to individuals with disabilities and among them, ASD. In 2014, the whole center was incorporated with QBRI. However, we continued to do the same research on autism that we started at the Shafallah. Currently, we are doing a different research project on autism.”
Dr Alshaban went on to explain that “QBRI has three research centers - the Neurological Disorders Research Center (NDRC), the Diabetes Research Center (DRC), and the Translational Cancer and Immuity Center (TCIC).
SPOTLIGHT: The title of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A puzzle that continues to baffle scientists, researchers and physicians.
“At the NDRC, we are now working on neurodevelopmental disorders which include mainly autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which is known as ADHD, epilepsy, and other developmental conditions. In addition, we have a research project on neurodegenerative conditions and disorders, like Parkinsonism - the collection of signs and symptoms found in Parkinson’s disease - and dementia. Other colleagues in addition to my team are working mainly on epidemiology, phenotyping and diagnosis of autism, biomarkers research programme, which includes genetics research for autism, the stem cells and functional studies. In addition, we have inter-disciplinary research projects, which involve researchers from the three QBRI research centers.”
A practical guide to autism
In introducing his recent guide to ASD Dr Alshaban said: “Dealing with families who have children with autism and other neuro-developmental conditions made me think I need to contribute to the awareness programmes. World Autism Awareness Day was first proposed to the United Nations by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser , Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, in 2007, and the proposal was adopted without a vote by the UN General Assembly. April 2 was set to mark World Autism Awareness Day.
We usually have an annual awareness programme in April. A number of awareness activities are held to guide people on how to seek advice and ask help for diagnosis and intervention. Therefore, I thought I should write a practical guide, not only for families with children with autism, but also for any families with a newborn baby. It guides them about their baby’s normal development, what to do, where to go and ask for help for any critical condition of autism.”
Dr Alshaban defines autism as ‘a neurodevelopmental disorder of variable severity that affects children before they reach three years. He added: “In characterized cases, we find a persistent deficit in social communication, and social interaction, which makes the child unwilling to interact with other children or with other peers. They will show restricted repetitive behaviours, such as repeating certain words and actions, like hand shaking or playing with toys, etc. The symptoms should show in early childhood and interfere with the normal behavior of a normal child. When the family notices this, they need to seek advice.”
Recent studies and research on autism at QBRI
Dr Alshaban went on to talk about his main research on the eye tracking project for the creation of an objective tool for early diagnosis of ASD. “It has almost reached its conclusion and we are working with the Cleveland Clinic to create a software and a hardware that will be available for the clinics in Qatar for early detection and diagnosis of autism.
“The other project we are carrying out is to create a registry for those aged 13 and above in Qatar who are affected by autism. This is done in collaboration with the Shafallah Center, Qatar Autism Society and other local stakeholders.
“A further project is about introducing machine learning and artificial intelligence for the early diagnosis of autism using the ADOS-2 autism diagnostic tool, in collaboration with Argus Cognitive in the US, and with Rush University, in Chicago, Illinois. Funded mainly by Argus, it is a two-year project which started three months ago.
“We are also concluding another project about the effect of COVID-19 on autism in Qatar. There are also other research projects on the genetics in autism at QBRI, the biomarker study and the functional studies on autism.”
Dr Alshaban explained: “Usually a family would find something wrong in their newborn baby’s development, well after the first or second month, depending on the severity of the condition. Some symptoms start earlier and in other cases the parents find that their newborn baby is developing normally until they reach the age of 18 months to two years.
Then, all of a sudden for one reason or another, the child will regress, which means that he will lose whatever skills he has learned, whether in speech or behaviour, and more and more symptoms of autism will appear which make the family seek help. Now, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Qatar recommends the well-baby clinics, which are available in all the health centers. They check the baby at 12 and 18 months (old) and at two years usually to detect early signs of autism. If they find anything wrong, they refer them to the specialized centers.
"Being a member of the Autism Plan Committee, I was actively involved in the discussion about this initiative with other professionals in Qatar from Hamad Medical Corporation and the MoPH and other colleagues. Now, there is better awareness about autism in Qatar.”
Dr Alshaban stressed why autism occurs in some families but not others in Qatar and elsewhere. “Until now, there are no definite causes for autism. Research has found that genes will play a very important part in causing autism. However, genes alone are not the only cause, sometimes they need a trigger mechanism, what we call the environmental factors, or the epigenetic factors. For instance, there is some genetic liability, some mutation in certain genes, but if a pregnant mother is exposed to a disease like German measles, fever or flu, or is taking medicine used for the treatment of epilepsy, they might trigger the mechanism and cause the signs of ASD to appear on the newborn baby. So, we cannot say there is a clear-cut cause for this disorder, but sometimes it runs in families.”
Dr Alshaban called on parents across the board to understand that autism is a spectrum, and individuals with autism sometimes have very mild symptoms, what is known as high functioning ASD. This means they have certain problems in social communication with other people, or avoiding sitting or playing with other children, so this is the high functioning. There are many examples of these conditions; it used to be known as Asperger syndrome. It is characterized by reduced social interaction, lack of nonverbal skills, and clumsiness. Others might have very severe symptoms, sometimes co-existing with other disorders and disease conditions, called co-morbidities, which complicate the whole picture of autism even more. For instance, 50% of autism comes with ADHD, sometimes it comes with epilepsy. Dr Alshaban said: “About 20 to 30% of those with ASD have epilepsy, 50 to 70% of autistics have intellectual disability, anxiety disorder, sleep problems, gastrointestinal problems, so it usually comes with those co-morbidities. That’s why ASD is a spectrum and includes so many different co-morbidities and this will make it even more difficult to diagnose and to treat.”
He recalled that the prevalence rate found in Qatar “is very precise i.e., one per 87 children (1.14%). The WHO rate says it is 0.5 to 1%, which means it is less than what we found, and the Americans found the rate of one per 54 children, which is higher than Qatar. These figures date from two years ago, and based on my ongoing research and records, they are increasing for several reasons. For the treatment of autism, we must be realistic, there is no cure for autism, but treatment or intervention will help the autistic child, so that he might get improvement in symptoms with better development. Especially when the intervention and treatment starts early, and for the high functioning cases, we have many good examples. So many people can finish college, they become scientists. Elon Musk is autistic high functioning and you can see what he has done with Tesla cars, the space rockets and so many other ideas.”
Dr Alshaban considers this as a factor for Musk’s achievement. “Yes, some autistic people are called savant. They form 5 to 8% of autistic people and have special skills. I know a British case who has a digital memory. If he walks around and looks at anything then when you ask him to draw it, he will replicate it exactly as if it was a photograph. I have the slides of when he flew in a helicopter over New York, after which he drew every single building, the number of windows were exactly like a photograph. He did it in London, Singapore, and he only looked at them from the helicopter, he has a digital memory. We have musicians like Beethoven, Mozart; inventors like Edison, Graham Bell, Einstein, - who are known or suspected to have autism. A certain percentage of autistic people are gifted.”
Dr Alshaban went on to mention the many cases he has come across about success stories with autism. He recalled: “Here in Qatar, they did very well, and I have the example of an American autistic person, Stephen Shore, who finished his PhD and is now working with Autism Speaks, the largest autism research organization in the United States. He published a number of books on autism. There are many examples of people who went through a very comprehensive and early intervention and they did extremely well. The earlier you detect the condition, and the earlier you start the intervention, the more likely you are to get very good results.”
Dr Alshaban is very keen on earlier diagnosis, treatment and finding ways to prevent the disorder from reoccurring. “I would say we can do something not to prevent, but at least to help in avoiding that condition. For instance, our advice from what we found is that the older the parents are the higher the chance for them to have a child with autism. We also found that pregnant women who use certain medications or misuse certain drugs, alcohol, or are exposed to toxic products or pollution will put their babies at risk.
It has been found that people who live near an area where the air pollution caused by herbicides or insecticides used in farming have a higher risk. So, these are the risks and they need to be very careful to avoid them. Pregnant women should avoid getting infection, fever, all these steps will help prevent autism. There are certain conditions for which we can do some counseling for the family to avoid getting an autistic child. For instance, a family with a case of autism called fragile X, which is a mutation in the X chromosome, have a higher risk of their next child having ASD. We guide them to do the in vitro fertilization (IVF) and to detect if there is a mutation to avoid that.”
Dr Alshaban is very focused on ongoing and future research on ASD in Qatar and abroad. “We are currently doing research on genetics and hope to find some biomarkers to be able to early diagnose autism. There are similar projects abroad too. I am glad that in Qatar we are leading autism research in the whole region, in collaboration with so many institutes whether locally or overseas. Now we are collaborating with Sultan Qaboos University in doing genetic research and also trying to help them in the prevalence study.”
As far as the future of the Argus Cognition software and hardware are concerned, Dr Alshaban pointed out that until now the test is a subjective one and it depends on the experience of the person who administers it. “We are trying with Argus to help make it more objective through machine learning and artificial intelligence in the near future.”
He concluded with a message to families: “I am glad that I can help with raising the families’ awareness about autism and am actively involved in the development of an easy way for diagnosing it as early as possible. We hope to continue contributing to the community in Qatar.”
