GOVERNANCE
Sheikha Mayassa
Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani currently serves as the Chair of the Qatar Foundation's "Reach Out to Asia" initiative, a philanthropic effort inspired by the desire to help the victims of recent natural disasters in Asia. She also serves as the Chair of Qatar's National Foundation of Museums and as an Assistant to the Chief of Staff of Qatar's Emiri Diwan.
Sheikha Mayassa has been engaged in humanitarian efforts for many years and strongly believes that every individual has the opportunity to make a difference in their community and the world. She has recently increased her involvement and become a leader in this arena.
Her latest project, Reach Out to Asia, raised 30 million dollars in its first 5 months to help those people who lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones in last year's tsunami and the recent earthquake in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. This initiative is also intended to develop primary and secondary education in the Asian least developed countries - with the aim of reaching the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.
Prior to her current work, Sheikha Mayassa was actively engaged in several humanitarian projects in the Arabian Gulf and Asia regions. In 2003, she worked with Qatar's Red Crescent organization (a partner of the Red Cross) to raise money for clothing and school equipment for the children of Iraq. In 2001 she worked in a local NGO in Cambodia and lead a campaign to raise funds for the cause of Palestine.
Sheikha Mayassa graduated from Duke University in the United States in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Literature. While at Duke, she was Vice President of the International Association, Vice President of HIWAR (an organization to promote political dialogue), and a delegate to the 2001-02 Model United Nations. For the 2003-04 school year, she studied at the Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (known as Sciences Po). She spent the summer of 2002 working in the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
ROTA Chairperson Sheikha Mayassa and her mother Her Highness Sheikha Mozah chat to former US President Bill Clinton at the Reach Out To Asia gala dinner.
